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THE 



TEMPLE OF NATURE; 



OR, THE 



ORIGIN OF SOCIETY, 



THE 

TEMPLE OF NATURE; 

OR, THE 

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

JL JPOEM, 

WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES. 

BY *^ v % 

ERASMUS ^DARWIN, MAR. , F.R.S. 

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, OF ZOONOMIA, 
AND OF PHYTOLOGIA. 



Unde hominum pecuduraque genus, vitaeque volantum, 

Et quce marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus ? 

Igneus est illis vigor, and celestis origo. Virg. /En. VI. 728. 



^Baltimore* 

PRINTED BY JOHN W. BUTLER, AND BONSAL # NILES, 

FOR BONSAL tf NILES, SAMUEL BUTLER, AND 

M. AND J. CONRAD tf CO. 

S==S==H8SBl 



1804. 









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PREFACE. 

XHE Poem, which is here offered to the 
Public, does not pretend to instruct by deep 
researches of reasoning ; its aim is simply to 
amuse, by bringing distinctly to the imagina- 
tion, the beautiful and sublime images of the 
operations of Nature, in the order, as the 
author believes, in which the progressive course 
of time presented them. 

The Deities of Egypt, and afterwards of 
Greece, and Rome, were derived from men 
famous in those early times, as in the ages of 
hunting, pasturage, and agriculture. The his- 
tories of some of their actions, recorded in 
Scripture, or celebrated in the heathen mythol- 
ogy, are introduced, as the author hopes, with- 



PREFACE. 

out impropriety, into his account of those re- 
mote periods of human society. 

In -1:3 Eleusinian mysteries, the philosophy 
of the works of Nature, with the origin and 
progress of society, are believed to have been 
taught by allegoric scenery, explained by the 
Hierophant to the initiated, which gave rise to 
the machinery of the following Poem. 

Priory, near Derby, 
Jan. 1st, 1802. 



ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 



CANTO I. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 



CONTENTS. 

I. Subject proposed. Life, Love, and Sympathy, 1. Four past 
ages, a fifth beginning, 9. Invocation to Love, 15. II. Bowers 
of Eden, Adam and Eve, 35, Temple of Nature, 65. Time 
chained by Sculpture, 75, Proteus bound by Menelaus, 83. 
Bowers of Pleasure, 89. School of Venus, 97. Court of 
Pain, 105. Den of Oblivion, 115. Muse of Melancholy, 121. 
Cave of Trophonius, 125. Shrine of Nature, 129. Eleusinian 
Mysteries, 13/. III. Morning, 155. Procession of Virgins, 159. 
Address to the Priestess, 1 67* Descent of Orpheus into Hell, 1 85. 
IV. Urania, 205. God, the First Cause, 223. Life began 
beneath the Sea, 233. Repulsion, Attraction, Contraction, Life, 235. 
Spontaneous Production of minute Animals, 247* Irritation, Ap- 
petency, 251 . Life enlarges the Earth, 265. Sensation, Volition, 
Association, 269. Scene in the Microscope ; Mucor, Monas, 
Vibrio, Vorticella, Proteus, Mite, 231. V. Vegetables and 
Animals improve by Reproduction, 295. Have all arisen from 
Microscopic Animalcules, 303. Rocks of Shell and Coral, 315. 
Islands and Continents raised by Earthquakes, 321. Emigration 
of Animals from the Sea, 32/. Trapa, 335. Tadpole, Mus- 
quito, 343. Diodon, Lizard, Beaver, Lamprey, Remora, 
Whale, 351. Venus rising from the Sea, emblem of Organic 
Nature, 371. All Animals are first Aquatic, 385. Fetus in the 
Womb, 389. Animals from the Mud of the Nile, 401. The 
Hierophant and Muse, 421—450, 



CANTO I. 
PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

I. _L>Y firm immutable immortal laws, 
Impressed on Nature. by the Great First Cause, 

Say, Muse ! how rose from elemental strife 
Organic forms, and kindled into life ; 
How Love and Sympathy, with potent charm, 
Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm ; 
Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains, 
And bind Society in golden chains. 

Four past eventful Ages then recite, 
And give the fifth, new-born of Time, to light ; 10 
The silken tissue of their joys disclose, 
Swell with deep chords the murmur of their woes ; 

B 



10 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Their laws, their labours, and their loves proclaim. 
And chant their virtues to the trump of Fame. 

Immortal Love ! who ere the morn of Time, 
On wings outstretched o'er Chaos hung sublime ; 
Warm'd into life the bursting egg of Night, 
And gave young Nature to aftniiring Light !— 
You ! whose wide arms, in soft embraces hurl'd 
Round the vast frames contlebt the whirling World ! 20 
Whether immers'd in day, the Sun your throne, 
You gird the planets in your silver Zoire ; 
Or warm, descending oil ethereal wing, 

The Earth's cold bosom with the beams of Spring ; 

Press drop to drop, to atom atom bind, 

Link sex to sex, or rivet mind to mind ; 

Attend my song ! — With rosy lips rehearse, 

And with your polishM arrows write my Verge ! — 

So shall my lines soft-rolling eyes engage, 

And snow-white fingers turn the volant page ; 30 



PRODUCTION OF UM. n 

The smiles of Beauty all my toils repay, 
And youths ami virgins chant the living lay. 

II. Where Eden's sacred bowers triumphant sprung, 
By angels guarded, and by prophets sung, 
WavM o'er the east, in purple pride unfurl'd, 
And rockM the golden cradle of the world ; 

Cradle of the world, 1. 36. The nations, which possess Europe, 
and a part of Asia, and of Africa, appear to have descended from 
one family ; and to have had their origin near the banks of the Me- 
diterranean, as probably in Syria, the site of Paradise, according to 
the Mosaic history. This seems highly probable from the similari- 
ty of the structure of the languages of these nations, and from their 
early possession of similar religions, customs and arts, as well as 
from the most ancient histories extant. The two former of these 
may be collected from Lord Monboddo's learned work on the Ori- 
gin of Language, and from Mr. Bryant's curious account of Ancient 
Mythology. 

The use of iron tools, of the bow and arrow, of earthen vessels to 
boil water in, of wheels for carriages, and the arts of cultivating 
wheat, of coagulating milk for cheese, and of spinning vegetable 
fibres for cloathing, have been known in all European countries, as 
Jong as their histories have existed ; besides the similiarity of the 



12 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Four sparkling currents lavM with wondering tides 

Their velvet avenues, and flowery sides ; 

On sun-bright lawns unclad the Graces strayed, 

And guiltless Cupids haunted every glade ; 40 

Till their fair Bride, forbidden shades among, 

Heard unalarm'd the Tempter's serpent-tongue ; 

Eyed the sweet fruit, the mandate disobeyed, 

And her fond Lord with sweeter smiles betray M. 

Conscious awhile with throbbing heart he strove, 

Spread his wide arms, and bartered life for love I — 

texture of their languages, and of many words in them, thus the 
word sack is said to mean a bag in all of them, as saccus in Latin, 
sacco in Italian, sac in French, and sack in English and German. 

Other families of mankind, nevertheless, appear to have arisen in 
other parts of the habitable earth, as the language of the Chinese is 
said not to resemble those of this part of the world in any respect. 
And the inhabitants of the islands of the South-Sea had neither the 
use of iron tools, nor of the bow, nor of wheels, nor of spin- 
ning, nor bad learned to coagulate milk, or to boil water, though 
the domestication of fire seems to have been the first great discovery 
that distinguished mankind from the bestial inhabitants of the forest. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. W 

Now rocks on rocks, in savage grandeur rolPd, 
Steep above steep, the blasted plains infold ; 
The incumbant crags eternal tempest shrouds, 
And livid lightnings cleave the lambent clouds ; 50 
Round the firm base loud -howling whirlwinds blow, 
And sands in burning eddies dance below. 

Hence, ye profane ! — the warring winds exclude 
Unhallowed throngs, that press with footstep rude; 
But court the Muse 3 s train with milder skies, 
And call with softer voice the good and wise. 
— CharmM at her touch the opening wall divides. 
And rocks of crystal form the polish/ d sides ; 
Through the bright arch the Loves and Graces tread, 
Innoxious thunders murmuring o^er their head ; 60 
Pair after pair, and tittering, as they pass, 
View their fair features in the walls of glass ; 
Leave with impatient step the circling bourn, 
And hear behind the closing rocks return. 



14 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Here, high in air, unconscious of the stora, 
Thy temple, Nature, rears it's mystic form ; 
From earth to heav'n, un wrought by mortal toil, 
Towers the vast fabric on the desart soil ; 
O'er many a league the ponderous domes extend, 
And deep in earth the ribbed vaults descend ; 70 

A thousand jasper steps, with circling sweep, 
Lead the slow votary up the winding steep ; 
Ten thousand piers, now joinM, and now aloof, 
Bear on their branching arms the fretted roof. 

Unnumbered ailes connect unnumbered halls, 
And sacred symbols crowd the pictur'd walls ; 

Pictured waits, 1. 76. The application of mankind, in the 
early ages of society to the imitative arts of painting, carving, statua- 
ry, and the casting of figures in metals, seems to have preceded the 
discovery of letters ; and to have been used as a written language to 
convey intelligence to their distant friends, or to transmit to poste- 
rity the history of themselves, or of their discoveries. Hence the 
origin of the hieroglyphic figures which crowded the walls of the 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE, \5 

With pencil fttde forgotten days design 
And arts, or empires., live in every lint. 
While chained reluctant on the marble gimtftd* 
Indignant TiMte reclines, s by Sculpture bound ; 
And sternly bending o'er a scroll unroll'd, 
Inscribes the fu ! tufe Wfflk his style of gold. 
—So eJrst, When pROtfeus on the briny shore, 
New forms as-sutn'd of eagle, pa^rf, or boar ; 

temples'tif antiquity ; 'rtidny dfwhi<ih itiay^e ^cen ih*the tablet of 
Isis, in the works of Montfattcon ; and some of them are still used 
in the sciences of chemistry and astronomy, as the characters for 
the metals and planets, and the figures of animals on the celestial 
globe. 

So erst, when Proteus, 1. 83. It seems probable that Proteuf 
was the name of a hieroglyphic figure representing Time ; whose 
form was perpetually changing, and who could discover the past 
events of the world, and predict the future. Herodotiis does not 
doubt but that Proteus was an Egyptian king or deity ; and Orphe* 
us calls him the principle of all things, and the most ancient of the 
gods: and adds, that 'Ke 'keeps tKekeys of Nature, Danet'sDict. 
all which might well accord with a figure representing Time. 



16 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The wise Atrides bound in sea-weed thongs 
The changeful god amid his scaly throngs ; 
Till in deep tones, his opening lips at last, 
Reluctant told the future and the past. 

Here o'er- piazza' d courts, and long arcades, 
The bowers of Pleasure root their waving shades ; 90 
Shed o'er the pansied moss a checker'd gloom, 
Rend with new fruits, with flow'rs successive bloom. 
Pleas'd, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd, 
In slight undress recumbent Beauties rest ; 
On tiptoe steps surrounding Graces move, 
And gay Desires expand their wings above. 

Here young Diqne arms her quiver'd Loves, 
Schools her bright nymphs, and practises her doves ; 
Calls round her laughing eyes in playful turns, 
The glance that lightens, and the smile that burns ; 100 
Her dimpling cheeks with transient blushes dyes, 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 17 

Heaves her white bosom with seductive sighs ; 
Or moulds with rosy lips the magic words, 
That bind the heart in adamantine cords. 

Behind in twilight gloom, with scowling mien, 
The demon Pain, convokes his court unseen ; 
Whips, fetters, flames, pourtrayM on sculptured stone, 
In dread festoons, adorn his ebon throne ; 
Each side a cohort of diseases stands, 
And shudd'ring Fever leads the ghastly bands ; 1 10 
O'er all, Despair expands his raven wings, 
And guilt-stain'd Conscience darts a thousand stings. 

Deep-wheWd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, 
Oblivion dwells amid unlabeled graves ; 
The storied tomb, the laurelPd bust o'erturns, 
And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns- 
No vernal zephyr breathes, no sun-beams cheer, 
Nor song, nor simper, ever enters here ; 



18 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

O'er the green floor, and round the dew-damp wall, 
The slimy snail, and bloated lizard crawl ; 120 

While on white heaps of intermingled bones, 
The muse of Melancholy sits, and moans ; 
Showers her cold tears o'er Beauty's early wreck, 
Spreads her pale arms, and bends her marble neck. 

So in rude rocks, beside the iEgean wave, 
Trophonius scoop'd his sorrow-sacred cave : 



Trophonius scoop' d, 1. 125. Plutarch mentions, that prophecies: 
of evil events were uttered from the cave of Trophonius ; but the 
allegorical story, that whoever entered this cavern were never again 
seen to smile, seems to have been designed to warn the contemplative 
from considering too much the dark side of nature. Thus an an- 
cient poet is said to have written a poem on the miseries of the 
world, and to have thence become so unhappy as to destroy himself. 
When we reflect on the perpetual destruction of organic life, we 
should also recollect, that it is perpetually renewed in other forms 
by the same materials, and thus the sum total of the happiness of 
the world continues undiminished ; and that a philosopher may 
thus smile again on turning his eyes from the coffins of nature to her 
cradles. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 19 

Unbarr'd to pilgrim feet the brazen door, 
And the sad sage returning smiPd no more, 

Shrin'd in the- midst majestic Nature stands, 
Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands ; 130 
Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crests, 
And births unnumber'd milk her hundred breasts ; 
Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends. 
O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends 5 
Her stately limbs the gather' d folds surround, 
And spread their golden selvage on the ground, 

From this first altar fam'd Eleusis stole 
Her secret symbols and her mystic scroll ; 

~FarrCd Eleusis stole, 1. 137. The Eleusinian mysteries were in- 
vented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred into Greece along with 
most of the other early arts and religions of Europe. They seem 
to have consisted of scenical representations of the philosophy and 
religion of those times, which had previously been painted in hiero- 
glyphic figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters ; 
and are well explained in Dr, Warburton's divine legation of Men 



20 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With pious fraud, in after ages reared 
Her gorgeous temple, and the gods revered. 140 

— First in dim pomp, before the astonished throng, 
Silence, and Night, and Chaos, stalkM along ; 
Dread scenes of Death, in nodding sables dress'd, 
Froze the broad eye, and thrilPd the unbreathing breast. 



ses ; who believes with great probability, that Virgil, in the sixth 
book of the ^Eneid, has described a part of these mysteries in his ac- 
count of the Elysian fields. In the first part of this scenery was 
represented Death, and the destruction of all things ; as mentioned 
in the note on the Portland Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next, 
the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, seems to have shown the repro- 
duction of living nature ; and afterwards the procession of torches, 
which is said to have constituted a part of the mysteries, probably 
signified the return of light, and the resuscitation of all things. 
Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons, of the early ages, seem 
to have been enacted ; who were first represented by hieroglyphic 
figures, and afterwards became the gods and goddesses of Egypt, 
Greece, and Rome. Might not such a dignified pantomime be con- 
trived, even in this age, as might strike the spectators with awe, and 
at the same time explain many philosophical truths by adapted im- 
ageiy, and thus both amuse and instruct ? 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 21 

Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads 
The queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads ; 
Charm'd in her train admiring Hymen moves, 
And tiptoe Graces, hand in hand with Loves. 
Next, while on pausing step, the masked mimes 
Enact the triumphs of forgotten times, 150 

Conceal from vulgar throngs the mystic truth, 
Or charm with Wisdom's lore the initiate youth ; 
Each shifting scene, some patriot hero trod, 
Some sainted beauty, or some saviour god. 

III. Now rose, in purple pomp, the breezy dawn, 
And crimson dew-drops trembled on the lawn ; 
Blaz'd high in air the temple's golden vanes, 
And dancing shadows veer'd upon the plains. — 
Long trains of virgins from the sacred grove, 
Pair after pair, in bright procession move, 160 

With flower-fill' d baskets round the altar throng, 
Or swing their censors, as they wind along. 



22 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The fair Urania leads the blushing bands, 
Presents their offerings with unsullied hands ; 
Pleas 'd to their dazzled eyes, in part unshrouds 
The goddess-form ; — the rest is hid in clouds. 

" Priestess of Nature i while with pious awe 
Thy votary bends, the mystic veil withdraw ; 
Charm after charm, succession bright, display, 
And give the Goddess to adoring day ! 170 

So kneeling realms shall own the Power divine, 
And heaven and earth pour incense on her shrine. 

" Oh grant the Muse, with pausing step to press 
Each sun-bright avenue, and green recess ; 
Led by thy hand survey the trophied walls, 
The statued galleries, and the pictured halls ; 

The statued galleries 1. 176. The art of painting has appeared in 
the early state of all societies before the invention of the alphabet. 
Thus when the Spanish adventurers, under Cortez, invaded America, 
intelligence of their debarkation and movements, was daily trans- 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 23 

Scan the proud pyramid, and arch sublime, 
Earth-cankerM urn, medallion green with time, 
Stern busts of Gods, with helmed heroes mixM, 
And Beauty^s radiant forms, that smile betwixt. 180 

" "WakM by thy voice, transmuted by thy wand, 
Their lips shall open, and their arms expand ; 
The love-lost lady, and the warrior slain, 
Leap from their tombs, and sigh or fight again. 
— So, when ill-fated Orpheus tun'd to woe 
His potent lyre, and sought the realms below ; 
Charm'd into life unreal forms respir'd, 
And listening Shades the dulcet notes admir'd. — 



mitted to Montezuma, by drawings, which corresponded with the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics. The antiquity of statuary appears from the 
Memnon and sphinxes of Egypt ; that of casting figures in metals 
from the golden calf of Aaron ; and that of carving in wood, from 
the idols or household gods, which Rachel stole from her father 
Laban, and hid beneath her garments, as she sat upon the straw. 
Gen. ch. xxxi. v. 34. 



24 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" Love led the Sage through Death's tremendous porch, 
Cheer' d with his smile, and lighted with his torch; — 190 
Hell's triple Dog his playful jaws expands, 
Fawns round the God. and licks his baby hands ; 
In wondering groups the shadowy nations throng, 
And sigh or simper, as he steps along ; 
Sad swains, and nymphs forlorn, on Lethe's brink, 
Hug their past sorrows, and refuse to drink ; 
Night's dazzled Empress feels the golden flame 
Play round her breast, and melt her frozen frame ; 
Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles, 
Her iron-hearted Lord, — and Pluto smiles. — 200 



Love led the Sage, 1. I89. This description is taken from the 
figures on the Barbarini, or Portland Vase, where Eros, or divine 
Love, with his torch precedes the manes through the gates of Death, 
and reverting his smiling countenance invites him into the Elysian 
fields. 

Fawns round the God, 1. 192. This idea is copied from a paint- 
ing of the descent Orpheus, by a celebrated Parisian artist. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. $5 

His trembling Bride the Bard triumphant led 
From the pale mansions of the astonishM dead ; 
Gave the fair phantom to admiring light, — 
Ah, soon again to tread irremeable night \" 

IV. Her snow-white arm, indulgent to my song, 
Waves the fair Hierophant, and moves along. — 
High plumes, that bending, shade her amber hair, 
Nod, as she steps, their silver leaves in air ; 
Bright chains of pearl, with golden buckles braced, 
Clasp her white neck, and zone her slender waist ; 210 
Thin folds of silk in soft meanders wind 
Down her fine form, and undulate behind ; 
The purple border, on the pavement rolPd, 
Swells in the gale, and spreads its fringe of gold. 

" First if you can, celestial Guide ! disclose 
From what fair fountain mortal life arose, 

D 



26 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Whence the fine nerve to move and feel assigned. 
Contractile fibre, and ethereal mind : 

" How Love and Sympathy the bosom warm, 
Allure with pleasure, and with pain alarm, 220 

With soft affections weave the social plan, 
And charm the listening Savage into Man." 

44 God the First Cause ! — in this terrene abode 
Young Nature lisps, she is the child of God. 
From embryon births her changeful forms improve, 
Grow, as they live, and strengthen as they move. 



God the First Cause, 1. 223. 

In him we live, and move, and have our being. St. Paul, 
A Jove principium, musae ! Jovis omnia plena. Virgil 

Young Nature lisps, 1. 224. The perpetual production and in- 
crease of the strata of limestone from the shells of aquatic animals, 
and of all those incumbent on them from the recrements of vegeta- 
bles and of terrestrial animals, are now well understood from our| 
improved knowledge of geology ; and show, that the solid parts o\ 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. s>7 

" Ere Time began, from flaming Chaos hurl'd, 
Rose the bright spheres, which form the circling world ; 
Earths from each sun with quick explosions burst, 
And second planets issued from the first. 230 



the globe are gradually enlarging, and consequently that it is young ; 
as the fluid parts are not yet all converted into solid ones. Add to 
this, that some parts of the earth and its inhabitants, appear younger 
than others ; thus the greater height of the mountains of America, 
seems to show that continent to be less ancient than Europe, Asia, 
and Africa, as their summits have been less washed away ; and the 
wild animals of Ameiica, as the tigers and crocodiles, are said to be 
less perfect in respect to their size and strength ; which would show 
them to be still in a state of infancy, or of progressive improvement. 
Lastly, the progress of mankind in arts and sciences, which contin- 
ues slowly to extend, and to increase, seems to evince the youth of 
human society ; whilst the unchanging state of the societies of some 
insects, as of the bee, wasp, and ant, which is usually ascribed to 
instinct, seems to evince the longer existence, and greater maturity of 
those societies. r\ The juvenility of the earth shows, that it has had a 
beginning or birth, and is a strong natural argument evincing the 
existence of a cause of its production, that is of the Deity. 

Earths from each sim } 1. 229. See Botanic Garden, Vol. I. 
I Cant. I. 1. 107. 

I "i - - - 



28 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Then, whilst the sea, at their coeval birth, 
Surge over surge, involved the shoreless earth ; 
NursM by warm sun-beams in primeval caves, 
Organic Life began beneath the waves. 

" First Heat, from chemic dissolution springs. 
And gives to matter its eccentric wings ; 
With strong Repulsion parts the exploding mass. 
Melts into lymph, or kindles into gas. 



First Heat from chemic, 1. 235. The matter of heat is an ethereal 
fluid, in which all things are immersed, and which constitutes the 
general power of repulsion ; as appears in explosions which are pro- 
duced by the sudden evolution of combined heat, and by the expan- 
sion of all bodies by the slower diffusion of it in its uncombined 
state. Without heat all the matter of the world would be condensed 
into a point by the power of attraction ; and neither fluidity nor 
life could exist. There are also particular powers of repulsion, as 
those of magnetism and electricity, and of chemistry, such as oil and 
water ; which last may be as numerous as the particular attractions 
which constitute chemical affinities ; and may both of them exist as 
atmospheres round the individual particles of matter ; see Botanic 
Garden, Vol. I. additional note VII. on elementary heat. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 29 

Attraction next, as earth or air subsides, 

The ponderous atoms from the light divides, 240 

Approaching parts with quick embrace combines. 

Swells into spheres and lengthens into lines. 

Last, as fine goads the gluten-threads excite, 

Cords grapple cords, and webs with webs unite ; 

And quick Contraction with ethereal flame 



Attraction next, 1. 23'J. The power of attraction may be divided 
into general attraction, which is called gravity ; and into particular 
attraction, which is termed chemical affinity. As nothing can act 
where it does not exist ; the power of gravity must be conceived as 
extending from the sun to the planets,'occupying that immense space; 
and may therefore be considered as an etherial fluid, though not cog- 
nizable by our senses, like heat, light, and electricity. 

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise occupy 
the spaces between the particles of matter which they cause to ap- 
proach each other. The power of gravity may therefore be called 
the general attractive ether, and the matter of heat may be called the 
general repulsive ether ; which constitute the two great agents in 
the changes of inanimate matter. 

And guide Contraction, 1. 245. The power of contraction, which 
exists in organized bodies, and distinguishes life from inanimation, 



30 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Lights into life the fibre-woven frame. — 

Hence, without parent, by spontaneous birth, 

Rise the first specks of animated earth ; 

From Nature's womb the plant or insect swims, 

And buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs. 950 

"In earth, sea, air, around, below, above, 
Life's subtle woof in Nature's loom is wove ; 



appears to consist of an ethereal fluid which resides in the brain and 
nerves of living bodies, and is expended in the act of shortening 
their fibres. The attractive and repulsive ethers require only the 
vicinity of bodies for the exertion of their activity, but the contrac- 
tive ether requires at first the contact of a goad or stimulus, which 
appears to draw it off from the contracting fibre, and to excite the 
sensorial power of irritation. These contractions of animal fibres 
are afterwards excited or repeated by the sensorial powers of sensation, 
volition, or association, as explained at large in Zoonomia, Vol. I. 
There seems nothing more wonderful in the ether of contraction 
producing the shortening of a fibre, than in the ether of attraction 
causing two bodies to approach each other. The former indeed 
seems in some measure to resemble the latter, as it probably occasions 
the minute particles of the fibre to approach into absolute or adhe- 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 31 

Points glued to points a living line extends, 

Touched by some goad approach the bending ends ; 

Rings join to rings, and irritated tubes 

Clasp with young lips the nutrient globes or cubes : 

And, urgM by appetencies new, select, 

Imbibe, retain, digest, secrete, eject. 

In branching cones the living web expands, 

Lymphatic ducts, and convoluted glands ; 260 



sive contact, by withdrawing from them their repulsive atmospheres ; 
whereas the latter seems only to cause particles of matter to ap- 
proach into what is popularly called contact, like the particles of 
fluids ; but which are only in the vicinity of each other, and still re- 
tain their repulsive atmospheres, as may be seen in riding through 
shallow water by the number of minute globules of it thrown up by 
the horses feet, which roll far on its surface ; and by the difficulty with 
which small globules of mercury poured on the surface of a quantity 
of it, can be made to unite with it. 

In branching cones, 1. 259. The whole branch of an artery or vein, 
may be considered as a cone, though each distinct division of it is a 
cylinder. It is probable that the amount of the areas of all the small 
branches from one trunk may equal that of the trunk, otherwise the 



32 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Aortal tubes propel the nascent blood, 
And lengthening veins absorb the refluent flood ; 
Leaves, kings, and gills, the vital ether breathe 
On earth's green surface, or the waves beneath. 
So Life's first powers arrest the winds and floods, 
To bones convert them, or to shells, or woods ; 
Stretch the vast beds of argil, lime, and sand, 
And from diminished oceans form the land ! 



velocity of the blood would be greater in some parts than in others, 
which probably only exists when a part is compressed or inflamed. 

Absorb the refluent flood, 1. 262. The force of the arterial impulse 
appears to cease, after having propelled the blood through the capil- 
lary vessels; whence the venous circulation is owing to the extremi- 
ties of the veins absorbing the blood, as those of the lymphatics 
absorb the fluids. The great force of absorption is well elucidated 
by Dr. Hales's experiment on the rise of the sap-juice in a vine- 
stump ; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXIII. 

And from diminished oceans, 1. 268. The increase of the solid parts 
of the globe by the recrements of organic bodies, as limestone rocks 
from shells and bones, and the beds of clay, marl, coals, from de- 
composed woods, is now well known to those who have attended to 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 33 

Next the long nerves unite their silver train, 
And young Sensation permeates the brain ; 270 
Through each new sense the keen emotions dart, 
Flush the young cheek, and swell the throbbing heart. 
From pain and pleasure quick Volitions rise, 
Lift the strong arm, or point the inquiring eyes ; 



modern geology ; and Dr. Halley, and others, have endeavoured to 
show, with great probability, that the ocean has decreased in quantity 
during the short time which human history has existed. Whence it 
appears, that the exertions of vegetable and animal life convert the 
fluid parts of the globe into solid ones ; which is probably effected by 
combining the matter of heat with the other elements, instead of 
suffering it to remain simply diffused amongst them, which is a 
curious conjecture, and deserves further investigation. 

And young Sensation, 1.270. Both sensation and volition consist 
in an affection of the central part of the sensorium, or of the whole 
of it ; and hence cannot exist tilt the nerves are united in the brain . 
The motions of a limb of any animal cut from the body , are there- 
fore owing to irritation, not to sensation or to volition. For the de- 
finitions of irritation, sensation, volition, and association, see addi- 
tional Note II, 



34 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With Reasons light bewilder' d Man direct, 
And right and wrong with balance nice detect. 
Last, in thick swarms Associations spring, 
Thoughts join to thoughts, to motions motions cling . 
Whence in long trains of catenation flow 
Imagined joy, and voluntary woe. 280 

"So, viewed through crystal spheres in drops saline, 
Quick-shooting salts in chemic forms combine ; 
Or Mucor-stems, a vegetative tribe, 
Spread their fine roots, the tremulous wave imbibe. 
Next, to our wondering eyes, the focus, brings 
Self-moving lines, and animated rings ; 

Or- Mucor-stems, 1. 283. Mu cor, or mould, in its early state, is 
properly a microscopic vegetable, and is spontaneously produced on 
the scum of all decomposing organic matter. The Monas is a mov- 
ing speck, the Vibrio an undulating wire, the Proteus perpetually 
changes its shape, and the Vorticella has wheels about its mouth, 
wi,th which it makes an eddy, and is supposed thus to draw into its 
throat invisible animalcules. These names are from XJnneus and 
Muller ; see Appendix to Additonal Note I. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 35 

First Monas moves, an unconnected point, 
Plays round the drop without a limb or joint; 
Then Vibrio waves, with capillary eels, 
And Vorticella whirls her living wheels ; 
While insect Proteus sports with changeful form 
Through the bright tide, a globe, a cube, a worm. 
Last o'er the field the Mite enormous swims, 
Swells his red heart, and writhes his giant limbs. 

V. " Organic Life beneath the shoreless waves 
Was born, and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves ; 



Beneath the shoreless waves, 1. 295. The earth was originally 
covered with water, as appears from some of its highest mountains, 
consisting of shells cemented together by a solution of part of them, 
as the limestone rocks of the Alps ; Ferber's Travels. It must be 
therefore concluded, that animal life began beneath the sea. 

Nor is this unanalogous to what still occurs, as all quadrupeds 
and mankind, in their embryon state, are aquatic animals; and thus 
may be said to resemble gnats and frogs. The fetus in the uterus 
has an organ called the placenta, the fine extremities of the vessels 
of which permeate the arteries of the uterus, and the blood of the 



36 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, 
Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass ; 
These, as successive generations bloom, 
New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume ;. 300 
Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, 
And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing. 



fetus becomes thus oxygenated from the passing stream of the mater- 
nal arterial blood ; exactly as is clone by the gills of fish from the 
stream of water, which they occasion to pass through them. 

But the chicken in the egg possesses a kind of aerial respiration, 
since the extremities of its placental vessels terminate on a membra- 
nous bag, which contains air, at the broad end of the egg ; and in this 
the chick in the eg-g differs from the fetus in the womb, as there is 
in the e^s no circulating maternal blood for the insertion of the 
extremities of its respiratory vessels, and in this also I suspect that 
the eggs of birds differ from the spawn offish; which latter is im- 
mersed in water, and which has probably the extremities of its respi- 
ratory organ inserted into the soft membrane which covers it, and is 
in contact with the water. 

First forms minute, 1. 297. See Additional Note I. on Sponta- 
neous Vitality. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 37 

Thus the tall Oak, the giant of the wood, 
Which bears Britannia's thunders on the flood ; 
The Whale, unmeasured monster of the main, 
The lordly Lion, monarch of the plain, 
The Eagle, soaring in the realms of air, 
Whose eye undazzled drinks the solar glare ; — 
Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd, 
Of language, reason, and reflection proud, 310 

With brow erect, who scorns this earthy sod, 
And styles himself the image of his God ; 
Arose from rudiments of form and sense, 
An embryon point, or microscopic ens ! 

" Now in vast shoals beneath the brineless tide, 
On earth's firm crust testaceous tribes reside : 



An embryon point, I. 314. The arguments, showing that all vege- 
tables and animals arose from such a small beginning, as a living point 
or living fibre, are detailed in Zoonomia, Sect. 39,4. 8. on generation. 

Brineless tide, 1. 315. As the salt of the sea has been gradually 
accumulating, being washed down into it from the recrements of 



53 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Age after age expands the peopled plain ; 

The tenants perish, but their cells remain ; 

Whence coral walls, and sparry hills, ascend 

From pole to pole, and round the line extend. 320 

Next, when imprisoned fires in central caves 
Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves ; 
And, as new airs with dread explosion swell, 
FormM lava-isles, and continents of shell ; 
PilM rocks on rocks, on mountains mountains raisM, 
And high in heaven the first volcanoes blazM ; 



animal and vegetable bodies, the sea must originally have been as 
fresh as river water; and as it is not saturated with salt, must be- 
come annually saline. The sea-water about our island contains at this 
time from about one twenty-eighth to one thirtieth part of sea salt, 
and about one eightieth of magnesian salt; Brownrigg on Salt. 

Whence coral walls, 1. 319. An account of the structure of the 
earth is given in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Notes, XVJ. 
XVIII. XIX. XX. XXIII. XXIV. 

Drank the headlong waves, 1. 322. See Additional Note III. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 39 

In countless swarms an insect-myriad moves 
From sea-fan gardens, and from coral groves ; 
Leaves the cold caverns of the deep, and creeps 
On shelving shores, or climbs on rocky steeps. 350 



An insect-myriad moves, 1. 327- After islands or continents were 
raised above the primeval ocean, great numbers of the most simple 
animals would attempt to seek food at the edges or shores of the 
new land, and might thence gradually become amphibious; as is 
now seen in the frog, who changes from an aquatic animal to an 
amphibious one ; and in the gnat, which changes from a natant to a 
volant state. 

At the same time new microscopic animalcules would immediately 
commence wherever there was warmth and moisture, and some 
organic matter, that might induce putridity. Those situated on dry- 
land, and immersed in dry air, may gradually acquire new powers to 
preserve their existence ; and by innumerable successive reproduc- 
tions, for some thousands, or perhaps millions of ages, may at length 
have produced many of the vegetable and animal inhabitants which 
now people the earth, ft W" ' 

As innumerable shell-fish must have existed a long time beneath 
the ocean, before the calcareous mountains were produced and 
elevated ; it is also probable, that many of the insect tribes, or less 
complicate animals, existed long before the quadrupeds or more 
complicate ones, which in some measure accord* whh the theory of 



40 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Cold gills aquatic, form respiring lungs, 
And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues. 

" So Trapa rooted in pellucid tides, 
In countless threads her breathing leaves divides, 



Linneus in respect to the vegetable world ; who thinks, that all the 
plants now extant arose from the conjunction and reproduction of 
about sixty different vegetables, from which he constitutes his 
natural orders. 

As the blood of animals in the air becomes more oxygenated in their 
lungs, than that of animals in water by their gills ; it becomes of a 
more scarlet color ; and from its greater stimulus, the sensorium 
seems to produce quicker motions and finer sensations ; and as water 
is a much better vehicle for vibrations or sounds than air, the fish, 
even when dying in pain, are mute in the atmosphere, though it is 
probable that in the water they may utter sounds to be heard at a 
considerable distance. See on this subject, Botanic Garden, Vol. I. 
Canto IV. 1. 176, Note. 

So Trapa rooted, 1. 335 The lower leaves of this plant grow under 
water, and are divided into minute capillary ramifications; while the 
upper leaves are broad and round, and have air bladders in their 
footstalks to support them above the surface of the water. As the 
aerial leaves of vegetables do the office of lungs, by exposing a large 






PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 41 

Waves her bright tresses in the watery mass, 
And drinks with gelid gills the vital gas ; 
Then broader leaves in shadowy files advance, 
Spread o'er the crystal flood their green expanse ; 340 
And, as in air the adherent dew exhales, 
Court the warm sun, and breathe ethereal gales. 



surface of vessels, with their contained fluids, to the influence of the 
air ; so these aquatic leaves answer a similar purpose like the gills of 
fish, and perhaps gain from water a similar material . As the material 
thus necessary to life, seems to be more easily acquired from air than 
from water, the subaquatic leaves of this plant and of sisymbrium, 
oenanthe, ranunculus aquatilis, water crow-foot, and some ethers, 
are cut into fine divisions to increase the surface, whilst those above 
water, are undivided ; see Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto IV. 
1. 204, Note. 

Few of the water plants of this country are used for economical 
purposes, but the ranuncules fluviatilis may be worth cultivation ; as 
on the borders of the river Avon, near Ringwood, the cottagers cut 
this plant every morning in boats, almost all the year round, to feed 
their cows, which appear in good condition, and give a due quantity 
of milk ; see a paper from Dr. Pultney in the Transactions of the 
Linnean Society, Vol. V. 

F 



M ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" So still the Tadpole cleaves the watery vale 
With balanced fins, and undulating tail ; 
New lungs and limbs proclaim his second birth, 
Breathe the dry air, and bound upon the earth. . 
So from deep lakes the dread Musquito springs, 
Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings, 
In twinkling squadrons cuts his airy way, 
Dips his red trunk in blood, and man his prey. 350 



So still the Tadpole,!. 343. The transformation of the tadpole 
from an aquatic animal into an aerial one, is abundant^ curious. 
When first it is hatched from the spawn by the warmth of the season, 
it resembles a fell ; it afterwards puts forth legs, and resembles a 
lizard ; and finally losing its tail, and acquiring lungs instead of gills, 
becomes an aerial quadruped. 

The rana temporaria of Linneus lives in the water in Spring, 
and on the land in Summer, and catches flies. Of the rana paradoxa 
the larva or tadpole is as the large as the frog, and dwells in Surinam 
whence the mistake of Merian and of Seba, who call it a frog fish. The 
esculent frog is green, with three yellow lines from the mouth to the 
anus; the back transversely gibbous, the hinder feet palmated ; its 
more frequent croaking in the evenings is said to foretell rain. 
Linnei Syst, Nat. Art. rana. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 43 

" So, still the Diodons, amphibious tribe, 
With two-fold lungs the sea or air imbibe ; 
Allied to fish, the lizard cleaves the flood 
With one cell'd heart, and dark frigescent blood ; 
Half-reasoning Beavers, long-unbreathing, dart 
Through Erie^s waves, with perforated heart ; 
With gills and lungs respiring Lampreys steer, 
Kiss the rude rocks, and suck till they adhere ; 
The lazy Remora^s inhaling lips, 
Hung on the keel, retard the struggling ships ; 360 
With gills pulmonic breathes the enormous Whale, 
And spouts aquatic columns to the gale ; 



Linneus asserts in his introduction to the class Amphibia, that 
frogs are so nearly allied to lizards, lizards to serpents, and serpents 
to fish, that the boundaries of these orders can scarcely be ascer- 
tained. 

The dread Musquito springs. 1. 347- See Additional Note IV, 
So still the Diodons, 1.351. See Additional Note V. 



44 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Sports on the shining wave at noontide hours, 
And shifting rainbows crest the rising showers. 

" So erst, ere rose the science to record 
In letter* d syllables the volant word ; 
Whence chemic arts, disclosM in pictured lines, 
Liv'd to mankind by hieroglyphic signs ; 
And clustering stars, pourtrayM on mimic spheres, 
Assumed the forms of lions, bulls, and bears ; 370 
— So erst, as Egypt's rude designs explain, 
Rose young Dione from the shoreless main ; 



At noontide hours, 1, 363. The rainbows in our latitude are only 
seen in the mornings or evenings, when the sun is not much more than 
forty-two degrees high. In the more northern latitudes, where the 
meridian sun is not more than forty-two degrees high, they are also 
visible at noon. 

As Egypt** rude designs, 1. 371. See Additional Note VI. 

Rose young Dione, 1. 5/2. The hieroglyphic figure of Venus ris- 
ing from the sea, supported on a shell by two tritons, as well as that 
of Hercules armed with a club, appear to be remains of the most 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 45 

Type of organic Nature ! source of bliss ! 
Emerging Beauty from the vast abyss ! 
Sublime on Chaos borne, the Goddess stood, 
And smil'd enchantment on the troubled flood ; 
The warring elements to peace restored. 
And young Reflection wondered and ador'd," 

Now pausM the Nymph, — The Muse responsive cries, 
Sweet admiration sparkling in her eyes, 380 



remote antiquity. As the former is devoid of grace, and of the pic- 
torial art of design, as one half of the group exactly resembles the 
other ; and as that of Hercules is armed with a club, which was the 
first weapon. 

The Venus seems to have represented the beauty of organic Nature 
rising from the sea, and afterwards became simply an emblem of ideal 
beauty ; while the figure of Adonis was probably designed to repre- 
sent the more abstracted idea of life or animation. Some of these 
hieroglyphic designs seem to evince the profound investigations in 
science of the Egyptian philosophers, and to have outlived all writ- 
ten language ; and still constitute the symbols, by which painters 
and poets give form and animation to abstracted ideas, as to those of 
strength and beauty in the above instances. 



46 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" Drawn by your pencil, by your hand unfurPd, 
Bright shines the tablet of the dawning world ; 
Amaz'd the Sea^s prolific depth I view, 
And Venus rising from the waves in You ! 

" Still Nature's births, enclosM in egg or seed, 
From the tall forest to the lowly weed, 
Her beaux and beauties, butterflies and worms, 
Rise from aquatic to aerial forms. 
Thus in the womb the nascent infant laves 
Its natant form in the circumfluent waves ; 
With perforated heart unbreathing swims, 
Awakes and stretches all its recent limbs ; 
With gills placental seeks the arterial flood, 



Awakes and stretches, 1. 392, During the first six months of ges- 
tation, the embryon probably sleeps, as it seems to have no use for 
voluntary power ; it then seems to awake, and to stretch its limbs, 
and change its posture in some degree, which is termed quickening. 

With gills placenta!, 1. 393. The placenta adheres to any side of 
the uterus in natural gestation, or of any other cavity in extra-uterine 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 47 

And drinks pure ether from its Mother's blood. 

Erewhile the landed Stranger bursts his way, 

From the warm wave emerging into day ; 

Feels the chill blast, and piercing light, and tries 

His tender lungs, and rolls his dazzled eyes ; 

Gives to the passing gale his curling hair, 

And steps a dry inhabitant of air. 400 

" Creative Nile, as taught in ancient song, 
So charmed to life his animated throng ; 
O'er his wide realms the slow-subsiding flood 



gestation ; the extremities of its arteries and veins probably permeate 
the arteries of the mother, and absorb from thence, through their fine 
coats, the oxygen of the mother's blood ; hence, when the placenta 
is withdrawn, the side of the uterus, where it adhered, bleeds ; but 
not the extremities of its own vessels. 

His dazzled eyes, 1. 398. Though the membrana pupillaris de- 
scribed by modern anatomists guards the tender retina from too 
much light ; the young infant, nevertheless, seems to feel the presence 
of it, by its frequently moving its eyes before it can distinguish com- 
mon objects. 



48 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Left the rich treasures of organic mud ; 

While with quick growth young Vegetation yields 

Her blushing orchards, and her waving fields ; 

Pomona's hand replenished Plenty's horn, 

And Ceres laugh* d amid her seas of corn. — 

Bird, beast, and reptile, spring from sudden birth, 

liaise their new forms, half-animal, half-earth ; 410 

The roaring lion shakes his tawny mane, 

His struggling limbs still rooted in the plain ; 

With flapping wings assurgent eagles toil 

To rend their talons from the adhesive soil ; 

The impatient serpent lifts his crested head, 

And drag's his train unfinished from the bed. — 

As Warmth and Moisture blend their magic spells, 



As warmth and moisture, 1. 417. 

In eodem corpore saspe 
Altera pars vivit. ; rudis est pars altera tellus. 
Quippe ubi temperiem sumpserehumorque calorqme, 
Concipiunt ; & ab his oriuntur, cuncta duobus. 

Ovid. Met. 1. 1. 403. 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 49 

And brood with mingling wings the slimy dells ; 

Contractile earths in sentient forms arrange, 

And life triumphant stays their chemic change. 420 

Then, hand in hand, along the waving glades, 
The virgin Sisters pass beneath the shades ; 
Ascend the winding steps with pausing march, 
And seek the Portico's susurrant arch ; 
Whose sculptured architrave, on columns borne y j 

Drinks the first blushes of the rising morn, 
Whose fretted roof an ample shield displays, 



This story from Ovid, of the production of animals from the miid 
of the Nile, seems to be of Egyptian origin, and is probably a poeti-. 
cal account of the opinions of the magi or priests of that country; 
showing that the simplest animations were spontaneously produced 
like chemical combinations, but were distinguished from the latter by 
their perpetual improvement by the power of reproduction, first by 
solitary, and then by sexual generation; whereas the products of 
natural chemistry are only enlarged by accretion, or purified by 
filtration. 

G 



,50 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

And guards the Beauties from meridian rays. 
While on light step enamour' d Zephyr springs, 
And fans their glowing features with his wings, 430 
Imbibes the fragrance of the vernal flowers, 
And speeds with kisses sweet the dancing Hours. 

Urania, leaning with unstudied grace, 
Rests her white elbow on a column's base ; 
Awhile reflecting takes her silent stand, 
Her fair cheek pressed upon her lily hand ; 
Then, as awaking from ideal trance, 
On the smooth floor her pausing steps advance, 
Waves high her arm, upturns her lucid eyes, 
Marks the wide scenes of ocean, earth, and skies ; 440 
And leads, meandering as it rolls along 
Through Nature's walks, the shining stream of Song. 

First her sweet voice, in plaintive accents, chains 
The Muse's ear with fascinating strains ; 



PRODUCTION OF LIFE, 41 

Reverts awhile to elemental strife, 

The change of form, and brevity of life ; 

Then tells how potent Love, with torch sublime, 

Relights the glimmering lamp, and conquers Time. 

— The polish 3 d walls reflect her rosy smiles 5j 

And sweet-ton'd echoes talk along the ailes. 450 

END OF CANTO I. 



OKIGIW OF SOCIETY. 



CANTO II. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 



_ 



CONTENTS. 



Brevity of Life, 1. Reproduction, 13. Animals improve, 31. 
Life and Death alternate, 37 . Adonis emblem of Mortal Life, 45. 
II. Solitary reproduction, 61. Buds, Bulbs, Polypus, 65. 
Truffle ; Buds of trees how generated, 7U Volvox,, Polypus. 
Taenia, Oysters, Corals, are without Sex, 83. Storge goddess of 
Parental Love ; First chain of Society, 92. III. Female Sex pro- 
duced, 1 03. Tulip bulbs, Aphis, 125. Eve from Adam's rib, 135. 
IV. Hereditary diseases, 159. Grafted trees, bulbous roots de- 
generate, 167. Gout, Mania, Scrofula, Consumption, 177. Time 
and Nature, 185. V. Urania and the Muse lament, 205. Cupid 
and Psyche, the deities of sexual love, 22 1 . Speech of Hymen, 239. 
Second chain of Society, 250. Young Desire, 251. Love and 
Beauty save the world, 257. Vegetable sexes, Anthers and Stigmas 
salute, 263. Vegetable sexual generation, 271. Anthers of Val- 
lisneria float to the Stigmas, 279* Ant, Lampyris, Glow- Worm, 
Snail, 287. Silk-Worm, 293. VI. Demon of Jealousy, 307. 
Cocks, Quails, Stags, Boars, 313. Knights of Romance, 327. 
Helen and Paris, 333. Connubial Love, 341. Married Birds, 
Nests of the Linnet and Nightingale, 343. Lions, Tigers, Bulls, 
Horses, 357. Triumphal car of Cupid, 361. Fish, Birds, In- 
sects, 371. Vegetables, 389. March of Hymen, 411. His lamp, 
419. VII. Urania's advice to her Nymphs, 425. Dines with the 
Muse on forbidden Fruit, 435. Angels visit Abraham, 447 — 458. 



CANTO II. 

REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

I. "XiOW short the span of Life! some hours possest, 
Warm but to cool — and active but to rest ! 
The age-worn fibres goaded to contract, 
By repetition palsied, cease to act ; 



How short the span of Life, 1. 1. The thinking few in all ages 
have complained of the brevity of life, lamenting that mankind are 
not allowed time sufficient to cultivate science, or to improve their 
intellect. Hippocrates introduces his celebrated aphorisms with this 
idea ; " Life is short, science long, opportunities of knowledge 
rare, experiments fallacious, and reasoning difficult."— A melan- 
choly reflection to philosophers ! 

The age-worn fibres, 1. 3. Why the same kinds of food, which 
enlarge and invigorate the body from infancy to the meridian of life, 
and then nourish it for some years unimpaired, should at length 
gradually cease to do so, and the debility of age and death super- 



56 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

When Time's cold hands the languid senses seize, 
Chill the dull nerves, the lingering currents freeze ; 
Organic matter, unreclaim'd by Life, 
Reverts to elements by chemic strife. 
Thus Heat, evolv'd from some fermenting mass, 
Expands the kindling atoms into gas ; 10 

Which sink ere long in cold concentric rings, 
Condensed, on Gravity's descending wings. 

" But Reproduction, with ethereal fires, 
New Life rekindles, ere the first expires ; 



vene, would be liable to surprise us if we were not in the daify 
habit of observing it ; and is a circumstance which has not yet been 
well understood. 

Before mankind introduced civil society, old age did not exist in 
the world, nor other lingering diseases ; as all living creatures, as 
soon as they became too feeble to defend themselves, were slain and 
eaten by others, except the young broods, who were defended by 
their mother ; and hence the animal world existed uniformly in its 
■greatest strength and perfection ; see Additional Note VII. 

But Reproduction, 1. 13. See Additional Note VIII. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 57 

Calls up renascent Youth, ere tottering age 

Quits the dull scene, and gives him to the stage ; 

Bids on his cheek the rose of beauty blow, 

And binds the wreath of pleasure round his brow ; 

With finer links the vital chain extends, 

And the long line of Being never ends. SO 

" Self-moving Engines, by unbending springs, 
May walk on earth, or flap their mimic wings ; 
In tubes of glass mercurial columns rise, 
Or sink, obedient to the incumbent skies ; 
Or, as they touch the figured scale, repeat 
The nice gradations of circumfluent heat. 
But Reproduction, when the perfect Elf 
Forms from fine glands another like itself, 
Gives the true character of life and sense, 
And parts the organic from the chemic Ens. — » SO 

Unbending springs, 1. 21. See Additional Note I. 4. 

H 



5$ ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Where milder skies protect the nascent brood, 
And earth's warm bosom yields salubrious food ; 
Each new Descendant, with superior powers 
Of sense and motion, speeds the transient hours ; 
Braves every season, tenants every clime, 
And Nature rises on the wings of Time. 

" As Life discordant elements arrests, 
Rejects the noxious, and the pure digests ; 
Combines with Heat the fluctuating mass, 
And gives a while solidity to gas ; 40 

Combines with Heat, 1. 39. It was shown in note on line 248 
of the first Canto, that much of the aerial and liquid parts of the 
terraqueous globe was converted by the powers of life into solid 
matter ; and that this was effected by the combination of the fluid, 
heat, with other elementary bodies, by the appetencies and propen- 
sities of the parts of living matter to unite with each other. But 
when these appetencies and propensities of the parts of organic mat- 
ter to unite with each other, cease, the chemical affinities of attrac- 
tion and the aptitude to be attracted, and of repulsion and the ap- 
titude to be repelled, succeed, and reduce much of the solid matters 



REPRODUCTION "OF LIFE. 69 

Organic forms with chemic changes strive, 
Live but to die, and die but to revive ! 
Immortal matter braves the transient storm, 

I Mounts from the wreck, unchanging but in form. — 

the matter of heat being again set at liberty, which was combined 
with other matters by the powers of life ; and thus by its diffusion, 
the solid bodies return into liquid ones or into gasses, as occurs in 
the processes of fermentation, putrefaction, sublimation, and cal- 
cination. Whence solidity appears to be produced in consequence 
of the diminution of heat, as the condensation of steam into water, 
and the consolidation of water into ice, or by the combination of 
heat with bodies, as with the materials of gun-powder before its 
explosion. 

Immortal matter, 1. 43. The perpetual mutability of the forms 
of matter seems to have struck the philosophers of great antiquity ; 
the system of transmigration taught by Pythagoras, in which the 
souls of men were supposed after death to animate the bodies of a 
variety of animals, appears to have arisen from this source. He 
had observed the perpetual changes of organic matter from one 
creature to another, and concluded, that the vivifying spirit must 
attend it. 









60 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

"So, as the sages of the East record 
In sacred symbol, or unlettered word ; 
Emblem of Life, to change eternal doomed, 
The beauteous form of fair Adonis bloomM.- 
On Syrian hills the graceful Hunter slain, 
Dy'd with his gushing blood the shuddering plain ; 50 
And, slow-descending to the Elysian shade, 
A while with Proserpine reluctant strayM ; ■ 



Emblem of Life, 1. 47. The Egyptian figure of Venus rising 
from the sea, seems to have represented the Beauty of organic Na- 
ture ; which the philosophers of that country, the magi, appear to 
have discovered to have been elevated by earthquakes from the 
primeval ocean. But the hieroglyphic figure of Adonis seems to 
have signified the spirit of animation or life, which was perpetually 
wooed or courted by organic matter, and which perished and re- 
vived alternately. Afterwards the fable of Adonis seems to have 
given origin to the first religion promising a resurrection from the 
the dead ; whence his funeral and return to life were celebrated for 
many ages in Egypt and Syria, the ceremonies of which Ezekiel 
complains as idolatrous, accusing the women of Israel of lament- 
ing over Thammus ; which St. Cyril interprets to be Adonis, in 
his Commentaries on Isaiah ; Danet's Diction. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 61 

Soon from the yawning grave, the bursting clay 

Restored the Beauty to delighted day ; 

Array* d in youth's resuscitated charms, 

And young Dione woo'd him to her arms. — 

PleasM for a while the assurgent youth above 

Re-lights the golden lamp of life and love ; 

Ah, soon again to leave the cheerful light, 

And sink alternate to the realms of night. 60 

II. " Hence, ere Vitality, as time revolves, 
Leaves the cold organ, and the mass dissolves ; 
The Reproductions of the living Ens 
From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence. 
New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots 
On lengthening branches, and protruding roots ; 
Or on the father's side, from bursting glands, 
The adhering young its nascent form expands ; 
In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns, 
And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70 



62 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

66 So the lone Truffle, lodgM beneath the earth, 
Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth ; 
No stamen-males ascend, and breathe above, 
No seed-born offspring lives by female love. 
From each young tree, for future buds designed, 
Organic drops exude beneath the rind : 
While these, with appetencies nice invite, 
And those with apt propensities unite ; 
New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine 
With quick embrace, and form the living line ; 80 
Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth, 
Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth. 



So the lone Truffle, 1. 71. Lycoperdon tuber. This plant never 
rises above the earth, is propagated without seed by its roots only, 
and seems to require no light. Perhaps many other fungi are gener- 
ated without seed by their roots only, and without light, and ap- 
proach on the last account to animal nature. 

While these with appetencies, 1. 77. See Additional Note VJII. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

" So safe in waves prolific Volvox dwells, 
And five descendants crowd his lucid cells ; 
So the male Polypus parental swims, 
And branching infants bristle all his limbs ; 
So the lone Taenia, as he grows, prolongs 
His flattened form with young adherent throngs ; 



Prolific Volvox, 1. 83. The volvox globator dwells in the lakes of 
Europe, is transparent, and bears within it children and grandchildren 
to the fifth generation ; Syst. Nat. 

The male polypus, 1. 85, The Hydra viridis and fusca of Linneus* 
dwell in our ditches and rivers under aquatic plants ; these animals have 
been shown by ingenious observers, to revive after having been dried, 
to be restored when mutilated, to be multiplied by dividing them, 
and propagated from portions of them, parts of different ones to 
unite, to be turned inside outwards and yet live, and to be propa- 
gated by seeds, to produce bulbs, and vegetate by branches. Syst- 
Nat. 

The lone Taenia, 1. 87. The tape- worm dwells in the intestines of 
animals, and grows old at one extremity, producing an infinite 
series of young ones at the other ; the separate joints have been 
called Gourd-w r orms, each of which possesses a mouth of its own and 
organs of digestion. Syst. Nat. 



64 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells, 

And coral-insects build their radiate shells ; 90 

Parturient Sires caress their infant train, 

And heaven-born Storge weaves the social chain ; 



The pregnant oyster, I. 89. Ostrea edulis dwells in the European 
oceans, frequent at the tables of the luxurious, a living repast ! New- 
born oysters swim swiftly by an undulating movement of fins thrust 
out a little way from their shells, Syst. Nat. But they do not after- 
wards change their place during their whole lives, and are capable of 
no other movement, but that of opening the shell a little way : whence 
Professor Beckman observes, that their offspring is probably produced 
without maternal organs ; and that those, who speak of male and 
female oysters, must be mistaken; Phil. Magaz. March 1800. It is 
also observed by H. I. le Beck, that on nice inspection of the Pearl 
oysters in the gulf of Manar, he could observe no distinction of 
sexes, Nicholson's Journal, April 1800. 

And coral insects, 1. 90. The coral habitation of the Madrepora of 
Linneus, consistsof one or more star-like cells; a congeries of which 
form rocks beneath the sea ; the animal which constructs it is termed 
Medusa ; and as it adheres to its calcareous cavity, and thence cannot 
travel to its neighbours, is probably without sex. I observed great 
masses of the limestone in Shropshire, which is brought to Newport, 
to consist of the cells of these animals. 

And hcavai-lorn Storge, 1. 92. See Additional Note IX. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 66 

Successive births her tender cares combine, 
And soft affections live along the line. 

" On angel-wings the Goddess Form descends, 
Round her fond broods her silver arms she bends ; 
White streams of milk her tumid bosom swell, 
And on her lips ambrosial kisses dwell. 
Light joys on twinkling feet before her dance 
With playful nod, and momentary glance ; 100 

Behind, attendant on the pansied plain, 
Young Psyche treads with Cupid in her train. 

III. " In these lone births no tender mothers blend 
Their genial powers to nourish or defend ; 
No nutrient streams from Beauty's orbs, improve 
These orphan babes of solitary love ; 
Birth after birth the line unchanging runs, 
And fathers live transmitted in their sons ; 

I 



66 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds, 
The same their manners, and the same their minds. 1 10 
*Till, as ere long successive buds decay, 
And insect-shoals successive pass away, 
Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex 
With the fond wish to form a softer sex ; 
Whose milky rill's with pure ambrosial food 
Might charm and cherish their expected brood. 



A softer sex, 1. 114. The first buds of trees raised from seed, die 
annually, and are succeeded by new buds by solitary reproduction ;, 
which are larger or more perfect for several successive years, and 
then they produce sexual flowers, which are succeeded by seminal re- 
production. The same occurs in bulbous rooted plants raised from 
seed ; they die annually, and produce others rather more perfect 
than the parent, for several years, and then produce sexual flowers. 
The Aphis is in a similar manner hatched from an egg in the vernal 
months, and produces a viviparous offspring without sexual inter- 
course for nine or ten successive generations ; and then the progeny 
is both male and female, which cohabit ; and from these new females 
are produced eggs, which endure the winter ; the same process probably 
occurs in many other insects. 






REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 67 



The potent wish in the productive hour, 

Calls to its aid Imagination's power, 

O'er embryon throngs with mystic charm presides^ 

And sex from sex the nascent world divides, 120 

With soft affections warms the callow trains, 

And gives to laughing Love his nymphs and swains ; 



Imagination* $ power, 1.118. The manner in which the similarity of 
the progeny to the parent, and the sex of it, are produced by the power 
of imagination, is treated of in Zoonomia, Sect. 39. 6. 3 . It is not to be 
understood, that the first living fibres, which are to form an animal, 
ure produced by imagination, with any similarity of form to the 
future animal ; but with appetencies ^or propensities, which shall pro* 
duce by accretion of parts, the similarity of form and feature, or of 
sex, corresponding with the imagination of the father. 

His nymphs and stvains, 1. 122. The arguments which have been 
adduced, to show that mankind and quadrupeds were formerly in an 
hermaphrodite state, are first deduced from -the present existence of 
breasts and nipples in all the males ; which latter swell on titillation 
like those of the females, and which are said to contain a milky fluid 
at their birth ; and it is affirmed, that some men have given milk to 
their children in desart countries, where the mother has perished; as 
the male pigeon is said to give a kind of milk from his stomach along 



63 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY, 

Whose mingling virtues interweave at length 
The mother's beauty with the father's strength, 



with the regurgitated food, to the young doves, as mentioned in 
Additional Note IX. on Storge. 

Secondly, from the apparent progress of many animals to greater 
perfection, as in some insects, as the flies with two wings, termed 
Diptera ; which have rudiments of two other wings, called halteres, 
or poisers ; and in many flowers which have rudiments of new stamina, 
or filaments without anthers on them. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. 
Curcuma, Note, and the Note on 1. 204 of Canto I. of this work. 

It has been supposed by some, that mankind were formerly quad- 
rupeds as well as hermaphrodites ; and that some parts of the body 
are not yet so convenient to an erect attitude as to a horizontal one ; as 
the fundus of the bladder in an erect posture is not exactly over the 
insertion of the urethra ; whence it is seldom completely evacuated, 
and thus renders mankind more subject to the stone, than if he had 
preserved his horizontality : these philosophers, with Buffon and 
Helvetius, seem to imagine, that mankind arose from one family of 
monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean ; who accidentally had 
learned to use the adductorpollicis, or that strong muscle which consti- 
tutes the ball of the thumb, and draws the point of it to meet the points 
of the fingers ; which common monkeys do not; and that this muscle 
gradually increased in size, strength, and activity, in successive ge- 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 69 

" So tulip-bulbs emerging from the seed, 
Year after year unknown to sex proceed ; 
Erewhile the stamens and the styles display 
Their petal-curtains, and adorn the day ; 
The beaux and beauties in each blossom glow 
With wedded joy, or amatorial woe. 130 

Unmarried Aphides prolific prove 
For nine successions uninformed of love ; 
New sexes next with softer passions spring, 
Breathe, the fond vow, and woo with quivering wing. 

" So, erst in Paradise, creation's Lord, 
As the first leaves of holy writ record, 



nerations ; and by this improved use of the sense of touch, that mon- 
keys acquired clear ideas, and gradually became men. 

Perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress to greater 
perfection ! an idea countenanced by modern discoveries and de- 
ductions, concerning the progressive formation of the solid parts of 
the terraqueous globe, and consonant to the dignity of the Creator 
of all things. 



70 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

From Adam*s rib, who press'd the flowery grove, 
And dreamt delighted of untasted love, 
To cheer and charm his solitary mind, 
Formed a new sex, the Mother of Mankind. 140 
— Buoy*d on light step the Beauty seem*d to swim, 
And stretch* d alternate every pliant limb ; 
Pleas* d on Euphrates* velvet margin stood, 
And view'd her playful image in the flood ; 
Own'd the fine flame of love, as life began, 
And smil*d enchantment on adoring Man. 
Down her white neck, and o*er her bosom roll*d, 
Flow*d in sweet negligence her locks of gold ; 
Round her fine form the dim transparence play*d, 
And show*d the beauties that it seem*d to shade. 150 
— Enamour* d Adam gaz'd with fond surprise, 
And drank delicious passion from her eyes ; 
Fclfc the new thrill of young Desire, and press'd 
The graceful Virgin to his glowing breast. — 

The mother of mankind > 1. 140. See Additional note X, 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 71 

The conscious Fair betrays her soft alarms, 
Sinks with warm blush into his closing arms, 
Yields to his fond caress with wanton play, 
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 

IV. " Where no new Sex with glands nutritious feeds, 
Nurs'd in her womb, the solitary breeds ; 160 

No mother's care their early steps directs, 
Warms in her bosom, with her wings protects ; 
The clime unkind, or noxious food, instills 
To embryon nerves hereditary ills ; 
The feeble births acquired diseases chase, 
^Till Death extinguish the degenerate race. 

" So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, 
Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies ; 

Acquired diseases, 1. 165, See Additional Note XI. 
So grafted trees, 1, 167. Mr. Knight first observed, that those 
apple and pear trees, which had been propagated for above a centu- 



72 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

'Till canker taints the vegetable blood, 

Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 170 

So, years successive, from perennial roots, 

The wire or bulb with lessened vigor shoots ; 

The curled leaves, or barren flowers, betray 

A waning lineage, verging to decay ; 

Or till, amended by connubial powers, 

Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers. 

" E'en where unmix'd the breed, in sexual tribes, 
Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes, 
Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage, 
With fierce unchecked hereditary rage ; 180 



ry by ingraftment, were now so unhealthy as not to be worth culti- 
vation. I have suspected the diseases of potatoes attended with the 
curled leaf, and of strawberry plants attended with barren flowers, 
to be owing to their having been too long raised from roots, or by 
solitary reproduction, and not from seeds, or sexual reproduction, 
and to have thence acquired those hereditary diseases. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 73 

Sad Beauty* s form foul Scrofula surrounds 
With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds ; 
And, fell Consumption ! thy unerring dart 
Wets its broad wing in Youths reluctant heart. 

" With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon, 
Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon, 
Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower, 
The slow bell counting the departed hour, 
O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews 
On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews ; 
While low aerial voices whisper round, 191 

And moon-drawn spectres dance upon the ground ; 
Poetic Melancholy loves to tread, 
And bend in silence o*er the countless Dead ; 



And, fell Consumption , 1.183. 

Hseret lateri lethalis arundo. 



K 



74 ORIGIN. OF SOCIETY. 

Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave, 
And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave -; 
Hears, on the new- turned sod, with gestures wild, 
The kneeling Beauty call her buried child ; 
Upbraid with timorous accents Heaven's decrees, 
And with sad sighs augment the passing breeze. 200 
' Stern Time,' She cries, ' receives from Nature's womb 
Her beauteous births, and bears them to the tomb ; 
Calls all her sons from earth's remotest bourne, 
And from the closing portals none return I' 

Y. Urania paus'd — upturn'd her streaming eyes, 
And her white bosom heav'd with silent sighs : 
With her the Muse laments the sum of things, 
And hides her sorrows with her meeting wings ; 
Long o'er the wrecks of lovely Life they weep, 
Then pleas'd reflect, " to die is but to sleep ;" 210 
From Nature's coffins to her cradles turn, 
Smile with young joy, with new affection burn. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 75 

And now the Muse, with mortal woes impressed, 
Thus the fair Hierophant again addressed 
— " Ah me ! celestial Guide, thy words impart 
Ills undeserved, that rend the nascent heart ! 
O, Goddess, say, if brighter scenes improve 
Air-breathing tribes, and births of sexual love ?"— 
The smiling Fair obeys the inquiring Muse, 
And in sweet tones her grateful task pursues. 220 

" Now on broad pinions from the realms above 
Descending Cupid seeks the Cyprian grove ; 
To his wide arms enamour'd Psyche springs, 
And clasps her lover with aurelian wings. 



Enamoured Psycht. 1. 223. A butterfly was the ancient emblem 
of the soul after death, as rising from the tomb of its former state, 
and becoming a winged inhabitant of air from an insect creeping 
upon earth. At length the wings only were given to a beautiful 
nymph under the name of Psyche, which is the greek word for the 
soul, and also became afterwards to signify a butterfly, probably from 
the popularity of this allegory. Many allegorical designs of Cupid 



76 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

A purple sash across His shoulder bends, 

And fringM with gold the quiver' d shafts suspends ; 

The bending bow obeys the silken string, 

And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring. 

Thin folds of gauze with dim transparence flow 

O'er Her fair forehead, and her neck of snow ; 250 

The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds, 

Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds ; 

As, hand in hand, along the flowery meads, 

His blushing bride the quiver' d Hero leads ; 

Charm' d round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng. 

And scatter roses, as they move along ; 

Bright beams of Spring in soft effusion play, 

And halcyon Hours invite them on their way. 

Delighted Hymen hears their whisper'd vows, 



or Love, warming a butterfly or the Soul, with his torch, may be seen 
in Spence's Poiymetis, and a beautiful one of their marriage in Bry- 
ant's Mythology; from which this description is in a part taken. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 77 



And binds his chaplets round their polish'd brows, 240 
Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands, 
And as they kneel, unites their -willing hands. 
6 Behold, he cries, Earth ! Ocean ! Air above, 
' And hail the Deities of Sexual Love ! 
6 All forms of Life shall this fond Pair delight, 
' And sex to sex the willing world unite ! 
4 Shed their sweet smiles in Earth's unsocial bowers, 
' Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours ; 
' Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloyed with pain, 
* And give Society his golden chain/ 2,50 

" Now young Desires, on purple pinions borne, 
Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn ; 
With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart, 
Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart. 
Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay, 
And Heaven's ethereal image melts away ; 
Love with nice touch renews the organic frame, 



78 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Forms a young Ens, another and the same ; 

Gives from his rosy lips the vital breath, 

And parries with his hand the shafts of death ; 260 

While Beauty broods with angel wings unfurl'd 

O'er nascent life, and saves the sinking world. 






" Hence on green leaves the sexual Pleasures dwell, 
And Loves and Beauties crowd the blossom's bell ; 
The wakeful Anther in his silken bed 
O'er the pleas'd Stigma bows his waxen head ; 
With meeting lips, and mingling smiles, they sup 
Ambrosial dew-drops from the nectar'd cup ; 



While Beauty broods, 1. 261. 

Alma Venus ! per te quoniam genus omne animaiitum 
Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina coeli. Lucret. 

From the nectar* d cup , 1, 263. The anthers and stigmas of flowers, 
are probably nourished by the honey, which is secreted by the honey- 
gland, called by Linneus the nectary ; and possess greater sensibi- 
lity or animation, than other parts of the plant. The corolofthe 
itower appears to be a respiratory organ belonging to these anthers 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 79 

Or buoyM in air the plumy Loter springs, 

And seeks his panting bride on Hymen-wings. 970 

" The Stamen males, with appetencies just, 
Produce a formative prolific dust ; 



and stigmas for the purpose of further oxygenating the vegetable 
blood, for the production of the anther dustfand of this honey, which 
is also exposed to the air in its receptacle or honey-cup ; which, I 
suppose, to be^ necessary for its further oxygenation, as in many 
flowers so complicate an apparatus is formed for its protection from 
insects; as in aconitum, delphinium, larkspur, lonicera, woodbine ; 
and because the corol and nectary fall along with the anthers and 
stigmas, when the pericarp is impregnated. 

Dr. B. S. Barton in the American Transactions, has lately shown, 
that the honey collected from some plants is intoxicating and poisonous 
to men, as from rhododendron, azalea, and datura; and from some 
other plants that it is hurtful to the bees which collect it ; and that 
from some flowers it is so injurious or disagreeable, that they do not 
collect it, as from the fritillaria or crown-imperial of this country. 

With appetencies just, 1. 271. As in the productions by chemical 
affinity, one set of particles must possess the power of attraction, and 
the other the aptitude to be attracted, as when iron approaches a 
magnet ; so when animal particles unite, whether in digestion or 



80 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY, 

With apt propensities, the Styles recluse, 

Secrete a formative prolific juice ; 

These in the pericarp ere while arrive, 

Rush to each other, and embrace alive. 

— FormM by new powers progressive parts succeed, 

Join in one whole, and swell into a seed. 

" So in fond swarms the living Anthers shine 
Of bright Vallisner on the wavy Rhine ; 280 



reproduction, some of them must possess an appetite to unite, and 
others a propensity to be united. The former of these are secreted 
by the anthers from the vegetable blood, and the latter by the styles 
or pericarp ; see the Additional Note VIII. on Reproduction. 

Of bright Vallisner, 1. 280. Vallisneria of the class of dioecia. The 
flowers of the male plant are produced under water, and as soon as 
their farina or dust is mature, they detach themselves from the plant, 
rise to the surface and continue to flourish, and are wafted by the 
air, or borne by the current, to the female flowers. In this they 
resemble those tribes of insects, where the males at certain seasons 
acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, coccus, lampyris, pha- 
laena, brumata, lichanella ; Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Note on Vallis- 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 81 

Break from their stems, and on the liquid glass 
Surround the admiring stigmas as they pass ; 
The love-sick Beauties lift their essenc'd brows, 
Sigh to the Cyprian Queen their secret vows* 
Like watchful Hero feel their soft alarms, 
And clasp their floating lovers in their arms. 

" Hence the male Ants their gauzy wings unfold, 
And young Lampyris waves his plumes of gold ; 
The Glow- Worm sparkles with impassion'd light 
On each green bank, and charms the eye of night; 290 



And young Lampyris, 1. 288. The fire-fly is at some seasons so 
luminous, that M. Merian says, that by putting two of them under a 
glass, she was able to draw her figures of them by night. Whether 
the light of this, and of other insects, be caused by their amatorial 
passion, and thus assists them to find each other ; or is caused by 
respiration, which is so analogous to combustion ; or to a tendency 
to putridity, as in dead fish and rotten wood, is still to be investi- 
gated ; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note IX. 



82 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

While new desires the painted Snail perplex, 
And twofold love unites the double sex. 

" Hence, when the Morus in Italians lands 
To Springes warm beam its timid leaf expands ; 
The Silk- Worm broods in countless tribes above, 
Crop the green treasure, uninformed of love ; 
Erewhile the changeful worm, with circling head, 
Weaves the nice curtains of his silken bed ; 
Web within web involves his larva form, 
Alike secured from sunshine and from storm ; 300 
For twelve long days he dreams of blossomM groves, 
Untasted honey, and ideal loves ; 



XJntasted honey, 1. 502. The numerous moths and butterflies seem 
to pass from a reptile leaf-eating state, and to acquire wings to flit in 
air, with a proboscis to gain honey for their food along with their 
organs of reproduction, solely for the purpose of propagating their 
species by sexual intercourse, as they die when that is completed. 
By the use of their wings they have access to each other on different 
branches or on different vegetables, and by living upon honey, pro- 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 83 

Wakes from his trance, alarmM with young Desire, 
Finds his new sex, and feels ecstatic fire ; 
From flower to flower with honey 'd lip he springs. 
And seeks his velvet loves on silver wings. 

VI. " The Demon, Jealousy, with Gorgon frown, 
Blasts the sweet flowers of Pleasure not his own, 



bably acquire a higher degree of animation, and thus seem to resem- 
ble the anthers of flowers, which probably are supported by honey 
only, and thence acquire greater sensibility ; see Note on Vallisneria, 
1. 280 of this Canto. 

A naturalist, who had studied this subject, thought it not impossi- 
ble that the first insects were the anthers and stigmas of flowers, 
which had by some means loosened themselves from their parent 
plant, like the male flowers of vallisneria, and that other insects in 
process of time, had been formed from these, some acquiring wings, 
others fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure 
food, or to secure themselves from injury. He contends, that none 
of these changes are more incomprehensible than the transformation 
of catterpillars into butterflies ; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Addi- 
tional Note XXXIX. 



84 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Rolls his wild eyes, and through the shuddering grove 
Pursues the steps of unsuspecting Love ; 310 

Or drives o'er rattling plains his iron ear, 
Flings his red torch, and lights the flames of war. 

Here Cocks heroic burn with rival rage, 
And Quails with Quails in doubtful fight engage ; 
Of armed heels, and bristling plumage proud, 
They sound the insulting clarion shrill and loud, 
With rustling pinions meet, and swelling chests, 
And seize with closing beaks their bleeding crests ; 
Rise on quick wing above the struggling foe, 
And aim in air the death-devoting blow. 320 

There the hoarse stag his croaking rival scorns, 
And butts and parries with his branching horns ; 



There the hoarse stag 9 \. 321. A great want of one part of the 
animal world has consisted in the desire of the exclusive possession 
of the females ; and these have acquired weapons to combat each 
other for this purpose, as the very thick shield-like horny skin on the 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 85 

Contending Boars with tusk enamellM strike, 
And guard with shoulder-shield the blow oblique ; 
While female bands attend in mute surprise, 
And view the victor with admiring eyes. — 

" So Knight on Knight, recorded in romance, 
UrgM the proud steed, and couchM the extended lance ; 




shoulder of the boar, is a defence only against animals of his own 
species, who strike obliquely upwards, nor are his tushes for other 
purposes, except to defend himself, as he is not naturally a carnivo- 
rous animal. So the horns of the stag are sharp to offend his adver- 
sary, but are branched for the purpose of parrying or receiving the 
thrusts of horns similar to his own, and have therefore been formed 
for the purpose of combating other stags for the exclusive possession 
of the females, who are observed, like the ladies in the times of 
chivalry, to attend the car of the victor. 

The birds, which do not carry food to their young, and do not 
therefore marry, are armed with spurs for the purpose of fighting for 
the exclusive possession of the females, as cocks and quails. It is 
certain that these weapons are not provided for their defence against 
other adversaries, because the females of these species, are without 
this armour; Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX, 4, 8. 



S<5 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

He, whose dread prowess, with resistless force, 
Overthrew the opposing warrior and his horse, 330 
BlessM, as the golden guerdon of his toils, 
BowM to the Beauty, and receivM her smiles. 

&i So, when fair Helen, with ill-fated charms. 
By Paris woo'd, provokM the world to arms, 
Left her vindictive Lord to sigh in vain 
For broken vows, lost love, and cold disdain ; 
Fir'd at his wrongs, associate to destroy 
The realms unjust of proud adulterous Troy, 
UnnumberM Heroes brav'd the dubious fight, 
And sunk, lamented, to the shades of night. 340 

® Now vows connubial chain the plighted pair, 
And join paternal with maternal care ; 
The married birds with nice selection cull 
Soft thistle-down, gray moss, and scattered wool, 
Line the secluded nest with feathery rings, 
Meet with fond bills, and woo with fluttering wings. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 87 

/ 

Week after week, regardless of her food, 

The incumbent Linnet warms her future brood ; 

Each spotted egg with ivory lips she turns, 

Day after day with fond expectance burns, 3.50 

Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell, 

And breaks in hemispheres the obdurate shell. 

Loud trills sweet Philomel his tender strain, 

Charms his fond bride, and wakes his infant train ; 



The incumbent Linnet, I. 348. The affection of the unexperienced 
and untaught bird to its egg, which induces it to sit days and weeks 
upon it, to warm the enclosed embryon, is a matter of great difficulty 
to explain ; See Additional Note IX. on Storge. Concerning the 
fabrication of their nests, see Zoonomia, Sect. XVI. 13. on instinct. 

Hears the young prisoner. 1. 351 . The air-vessel, at the broad end 
of an incubated egg gradually extends its edges along the sides of the 
shell, as the chick enlarges, but is at the same time applied closer to 
the internal surface of the shell ; when the time of hatching approaches, 
the chick is liable to break this air-bag with its beak, and thence 
begin to breathe and to chirp; at this time, the edges of the enlarged 
air-bag, extend so as cover internally one hemisphere of the egg ; 
and as one half of the external shell is thus moist, arid the other half 



4 



8S ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Perch 5 d on the circling moss, the listening throng 
Wave their young wings, and whisper to the song. 

" The Lion-King forgets his savage pride, 
And courts with playful paws his tawny bride ; 
The listening Tiger hears with kindling flame, 
The love-lorn night-call of his brinded dame. 360 

Despotic Love dissolves the bestial war, 
Bends their proud necks, and joins them to his car; 



dry, as soon as the mother hearing the chick chirp, or the chick 
itself wanting respirable air, strikes the tgg t about its equatorial 
line, it breaks into two hemispheres, and liberates the prisoner. 

And 'whisper to the song) 1. 356. A curious circumstance is men- 
tioned by Kircherus de Musurgia, in his Chapter de Lusciniis, 
" That the young nightingales, that are hatched under other birds, 
never sing till they are instructed by the company of other nightin- 
gales.'* And Johnston affirms, that the nightingales that visit Scot- 
land, have not the same harmony as those of Italy, (Pennant's Zoo- 
logy, octavo, p. 255,) which would lead us to suspect, that the sing- 
ing of birds, like human music, is an artificial language, rather than a 
natural expression of passion. 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 89 

Shakes o'er the obedient pairs his silken thong, 
And goads the humble, or restrains the strong. — 
Slow roll the silver wheels, — in beauty's pride 
Celestial Psyche blushing by his side. — 
The lordly Bull behind, and warrior Horse, 
With voice of thunder shake the echoing course, 
Chain'd to the car with herds domestic move, 
And swell the triumph of despotic Love. 370 

" Pleas'd, as they pass along the breezy shore, 
In twinkling shoals the scaly realms adore, 
Move on quick fin with undulating train, 
Or lift their slimy foreheads from the main. 



With undulating train, 1. 373. The side fins of fish seem to be 
chiefly used to poise them ; as they turn upon their backs immediately 
when killed, the air-bladder assists them perhaps to rise or descend 
by its possessing the power to condense the air in it by muscular con- 
traction ; and it is possible, that at great depths in the ocean, the air 
in this receptacle, may by the great pressure of the incumbent water, 

M 



90 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

High o'er their heads, on pinions broad displayM, 
The feathered nations shed a floating shade ; 



become condensed into so small a space, as to cease to be useful to 
the animal, which was possibly the cause of the death of Mr. Day, in 
his diving ship. See note on Ulva, Botan. Gard. Vol. II. 

The progressive motion of fish beneath the water, is produced 
principally by the undulation of their tails. One oblique plain of a 
part of the tail on the right side of the fish, strikes the water at the 
same time that another oblique plain strikes it on the left side, hence 
in respect to moving to the right or left, these percussions of the water 
counteract each other, but they coincide in respect to the progres- 
sion of the fish ; this power seems to be better applied to push forwards 
a body in water, than the oars of boats, as the particles of water recede 
from the stroke of the oar, whence the comparative power acquired, 
is but as the difference of velocity between the striking oar and the 
receding water. So a ship moves swifter with an oblique wind, than 
with a wind of the same velocity exactly behind it ; and the common 
windmill sail, placed obliquely to the wind, is more powerful than 
one which directly recedes from it. Might not some machinery re- 
sembling the tails offish, be placed behind a boat, so as to be moved 
with greater effect than common oars, by the force of wind or steam, 
or perhaps by hand ? 

On pi?iions broad displayed, 1. 375. The progressive motion of birds 
in the air is principally performed by the movement of their wings, 
and not by that of their tails, as in fish. The bird is supported in an 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 91 

Pair after pair enamour* d shoot along, 
And trill in air the gay impassion'd song. 
With busy hum, in playful swarms around, 
Emerging insects leave the peopled ground, 380 

Rise in dark clouds, and borne in airy rings, 
Sport round the car, and wave their golden wings. 
Admiring Fawns pursue on dancing hoof, 
And bashful Dryads peep from shades aloof; 



element so much lighter than itself by the resistance of the air, as it 
moves horizontally against the oblique plain made by its breast, ex- 
panded tail and wings, when tney are at rest; the change of this 
obliquity also assists it to ri?e, and even directs its descent, though 
this is owing principally to its specific gravity, but it is in all situa- 
tions, kept upright, or balanced by its wings. 

As the support of the bird in the air, as well as its progression, is 
performed by the motion of the wings ; these require strong muscles 
as are seen on the breasts of partridges. Whence all attempts of men 
to fly by wings applied to the weak muscles of their arms, have been 
ineffectual ; but it it not certain whether light machinery so con^- 
trived as to be moved by their feet, might not enable them to fly a 
little way, though not so as to answer any useful purpose. 



92 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Emerging Nereids rise from coral cells, 
Enamour' d Tritons sound their twisted shells ; 
From sparkling founts enchanted Naiads move. 
And swell the triumph of despotic Love. 






" Delighted Flora, gazing from afar, 
Greets with mute homage the triumphal car ; 390 
On silvery slippers steps with bosom bare, 
Bends her white knee, and bows her auburn hair ; 
Calls to her purple heaths, and blushing bowers, 
Bursts her green gems, and opens all her flowers ; 
O'er the bright Pair a shower of roses sheds, 
And crowns with wreathes of hyacinth their heads. — 
— Slow roll the silver wheels with snow-drops deck'd, 
And primrose bands the cedar spokes connect ; 
Round the fine pole the twisting woodbine clings, 
And knots of jasmine clasp the bending springs ; 400 
Bright daisy links the velvet harness chain, 
And rings of violets join each silken rein ; 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 93 

Festoon'd behind, the snow-white lilies bend, 
And tulip-tassels on each side depend. 
— Slow rolls the car, — the enamour'd Flowers exhale 
Their treasured sweets, and whisper to the gale ; 
Their ravelled buds, and wrinkled cups unfold, 
Nod their green stems, and wave their bells of gold ; 
Breathe their foft sighs from each enchanted grove, 
And hail The Deities of Sexual Love. 410 

" Onward, with march sublime, in saffron robe, 
Young Hymen steps, and traverses the globe ; 
O'er burning sands, and snow-clad mountains, treads, 
Blue fields of air, and ocean's briny beds ; 
Flings from his radiant torch celestial light 
O'er Day's wide concave, and illumes the Night. 
With dulcet eloquence, his tuneful tongue 
Convokes and captivates the Fair and Young ; 
His golden lamp with ray ethereal dyes 
The blushing cheek, and lights the laughing eyes ; 420 



94 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With secret flames the Virgin* s bosom warms, 
And lights the impatient Bridegroom to her arms ; 
With lovely life all Nature's frame inspires, 
And, as they sink, rekindles all her fires. 






VII. Now paus'd the beauteous Teacher, and awhile 
GazM on her train with sympathetic smile. 
6 Beware of Love \ y she cried, ' ye Nymphs, and hear 
4 His twanging bow-string with alarmed ear ; 
4 Fly the first whisper of the distant dart, 
4 Or shield with adamant the fluttering heart ; 430 
4 To secret shades, ye Virgin trains, retire, 
4 And in your bosoms guard the vestal fire." 
— The obedient Beauties hear her words, advised, 
And bow, with laugh repress'd, and smile chastis'd. 



With laugh repressed, 1. 434. The cause of the violent actions of 
laughter, and of the difficulty of restraining them, is a curious subject 
of inquiry. When pain afflicts us, which we cannot avoid, we learn 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 95 

Now, at her nod, the Nymphs attendant, bring 
Translucent water from the bubbling spring ; 



to relieve it by great voluntary exertions, as in grinning, holding 
the breath, or screaming; now the pleasurable sensation, which ex- 
cites laughter, arises for a time so high as to change its name, and 
become a painful one ; and we excite the convulsive motions of the 
respiratory muscles to relive this pain. We are however unwilling 
to lose the pleasure, and presently put a stop to this exertion ; and 
immediately the pleasure recurs, and again as instantly rises into pain. 
Which is further explained in Zoonornia, Sect. 34. 1. 4, When this 
pleasurable sensation rises into a painful one, and the customs of so- 
ciety will not permit us to laugh aloud, some other violent voluntary 
exertion is used instead of it, to alleviate the pain. 

With smile chastised, 1. 434. The origin of the smile has generally 
been ascribed to inexplicable instinct, but may be deduced from our 
early associations of actions and ideas. In the act of sucking, the lips 
of the infant are closed round the nipple of its mother, till it has 
filled its stomach, and the pleasure of digesting this grateful food suc- 
ceeds ; then the sphincter of the mouth, fatigued by the continued 
action of sucking, is relaxed; and the antagonist muscles of the face, 
gently acting, produce the smile of pleasure, which is thus, during 
our lives, associated with gentle pleasure, which is further explained 
in Zoonornia, Sect. 16, 8. 4. 



96 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

In crystal cups the waves salubrious shine, 

UnstainM untainted with immodest wine. 

Next, where emerging from its ancient roots, 

Its widening boughs the Tree of Knowledge shoots ; 440 

Pluck' d with nice choice, before the Muse they placed, 

The now no longer interdicted taste. 

Awhile they sit, from higher cares released, 

And pleasM partake the intellectual feast. 

Of good and ill they spoke, effect and cause, 

Celestial agencies, and Nature's laws. 

So when angelic Forms, to Syria sent, 
Sat in the cedar shade by Abraham's tent ; 
A spacious bowl the admiring Patriarch fills, 
With dulcet water from the scanty rills ; 450 

Sweet fruits and kernels gathers from his hoard, 
With milk and butter piles the plenteous board ; 



REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 97 

While on the heated hearth his Consort bakes 
Fine flour well kneaded in unleaven'd cakes. 
The Guests ethereal quaff the lucid flood, 
Smile on their hosts, and taste terrestrial food ; 
And while from seraph-lips sweet converse springs, 
Lave their fair feet, and close their silver wings. 

END OF CANTO II. 



N 



ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 



CANTO III. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Urania and the Muse converse, 1 . Progress of the Mind, 42. 
II. The four sensorial powers of Irritation, Sensation, Volition, and 
Association, 5b. Some finer senses given to Brutes, Q3. And 
Armour, 103. Finer Organ of Touch given to Man, 121. 
Whence clear ideas of Form, 125. Vision is the Language of the 
Touch, 131. Magic Lantern, 139- Surprise, Novelty, Curi- 
osity, 145. Passions, Vices, 149. Philanthropy, 159. Shrine 
of Virtue, 160. III. Ideal Beauty from the Female Bosom, 163. 
Eros the God of Sentimental Love, 177. Young Dione idolized by 
Eros, 186. Third chain of Society, 206. IV. Ideal Beauty from 
curved Lines, 207, Taste for the Beautiful, 222. Taste for the 
Sublime, 223. For poetic Melancholy, 231. For Tragedy, 241. 
For artless' Nature, 247. The Genius of Taste, 259, V. The 
Senses easily form and repeat ideas, 269. Imitation from clear 
ideas, 279. The Senses imitate each other, 293. In dancing, 295. 
In drawing naked Nymphs, 279. In Architecture, as at St. Pe- 
ter's at Rome, 303. Mimickry, 319. VI. Natural Language 
from imitation, 335. Language of Quails, Cocks, Lions, Box- 
ers, 343. Pantomime Action, 357. Verbal Language from Imi- 
tation and Association, 363. Symbols of ideas, 371. Gigantic 
form of Time, 385. Wings of Hermes, 391 . VII. Recollection 
from clear ideas, 395« Reason and Volition, 40;. Arts of the 
Wasp, Bee, Spider, Wren, Silk-worm, 411. Volition concerned 
about Means or Causes, 435. Man distinguished by Language, 
by using Tools, labouring for Money, praying to the Deity, 438. 
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, 445. VIII. Emotions 
from Imitation, 46l. The Seraph; Sympathy, 467. Christian 
Morality the great bond of Society, 483 — 49§. 



CANTO III. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND 



I. JM OW rose, adorn* d with Beauty's brightest hues, 
The graceful Hierophant, and winged Muse ! 
Onward they step around the stately piles, 
O'er porcelain floors, through laqueated ailes, 
Eye Nature's lofty and her lowly seats, 
Her gorgeous palaces, and green retreats, 
Pervade her labyrinths with unerring tread, 
And leave for future guests a guiding thread. 

First with fond gaze blue fields of air they sweep, 
Or pierce the briny chambers of the deep ; 10 



102 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Earth's burning line, and icy poles explore, 
Her fertile surface, and her caves of ore ; 
Or mark how Oxygen with Azote-gas 
Pla}4 round the globe in one aerial mass, 
Or, fusM with Hydrogen, in ceaseless flow, 
Forms the wide waves, which foam and roll below. 

Next, with illumined hands, through prisms bright, 
PleasM they untwist the sevenfold threads of light ; 
Or, bent in pencils by the lens, convey 
To one bright point the silver hairs of Day, 20 



How Oxygtn, 1.13. The atmosphere which surrounds us, is compo- 
sed of twenty-seven parts of oxygen gas, and seventy-three of azote or 
nitrogen gas, which are simply diffused together, but which, when 
combined, become nitrous acid. Water consists of eighty-six parts 
oxygen, and fourteen parts of hydrogen or inflammable air, in a state 
of combination. It is also probable, that much oxygen enters the 
composition of glass ; as those materials which promote vitrification, 
contain so much of it, as minium and manganese; and that glass is 
hence a solid acid in the temperature of our atmosphere, as water is 
a fluid one. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 103 

Then mark how two electric streams conspire 
To form the resinous and vitreous fire ; 
Beneath the waves the fierce Gymnotus arm, 
And give Torpedo his benumbing charm ; 
Or, through Galvanic chain-work as they pass, 
Convert the kindling water into gas. 



Two electric streams , 1.21. It is the opinion of some philosophers 
that the electric ether consists of two kinds of fluids diffused together 
or combined ; which are commonly known by the terms of positive 
and negative electricity, but are by these electricians, called vitreous 
and resinous electricity. The electric shocks, given by the torpedo, 
and by the gymnotus, are supposed to be similar to those of the Gal- 
vanic pile, as they are produced in water. Which water is decom- 
posed by the Galvanic pile, and converted into oxygen and hydrogen 
gas ; see Additional Note XII. 

The magnetic ether may also be supposed to consist of two fluids, 
one of which attracts the needles, and the other repels it ; and, per- 
haps chemical affinities, and gravitation itself, may consist of two 
kinds of ether surrounding the particles of bodies, and may thence 
attract at one distance and repel at another ; as appears when two 
insulated electrised balls are approached to each other^ or when two 
small globules of mercury are pressed together. 



104 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

How at the poles opposing Ethers dwell, 
Attract the quivering needle, or repel. 
How Gravitation by immortal laws 
Surrounding matter to a centre draws ; 30 

How Heat, pervading oceans, airs, and lands, 
With force unchecked the mighty mass expands ; 
And last, how born in elemental strife, 
Beam'd the first spark, and lightened into Life. 

Now in sweet tones the inquiring Muse expressed 
Her ardent wish ; and thus the Fair addressed. 
" Priestess of Nature t whose exploring sight 
Pierces the realms of Chaos and of Night ; 
Of space unmeasured marks the first and last, 
Of endless time the present, future, past ; 40 

Immortal Guide ! Oh, now with accents kind, 
Give to my ear the progress of the Mind. 
How loves, and tastes, and sympathies commence 
From evanescent notices of sense ? 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. ios 

How from the yielding touch, and rolling eyes, 
The piles immense of human science rise ? — . 
With mind gigantic, steps the puny Elf, 
And weighs and measures all things but himself V y 

The indulgent Beauty hears the grateful Muse, 
Smiles on her pupil, and her task renews. ,50 

Attentive Nymphs in sparkling squadrons throng, 
And choral Virgins listen to the song ; 
PleasM Fawns and Naiads crowd in silent rings, 
And hovering Cupids stretch their purple wings. 

II. " First the new actions of the excited sense, 
UrgM by appulses from without, commence ; 
With these exertions pain or pleasure springs, 
And forms perceptions of external things. 
Thus, when illumined by the solar beams, 
Yon waving woods, green lawns, and sparkling streams, 

O 



106 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

In one bright point, by rays converging, lie 61 

PlannM on the moving tablet of the eye ; 
The mind obeys the silver goads of light, 
And Irritation moves the nerves of sight. 

" These acts repeated, rise from joys or pains, 
And swell Imagination's flowing trains ; 
So in dread dreams, amid the silent night,, 
Grim spectre-forms the shuddering sense affright ; 



And Irritation moves, 1. 64. Irritation is an exertion or change, of 
some extreme part of the sensorium, residing in the muscles or organs 
of sense, in consequence of the appulses of external bodies. The 
word perception includes both the action of the organ of sense, in 
consequence of the impact of external objects, and our attention to 
that action : that is, it expresses both the motion of the organ of 
sense, or idea, and the pain or pleasure that succeeds or accompanies 
it. Irritative ideas are those which are preceded by irritation, which 
is excited by objects external to the organs of sense ; as the idea of 
that tree, which either I attend to, or which I shun in walking near 
it, without attention. In the former case it is termed perception, in 
the latter it is termed simply an irritative idea. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 107 

Or JSeauty's idol -image, as it moves, 
Charms the clos'd eye with graces, smiles, and loves ; 70 
Each passing form the pausing heart delights, 
And young Sensation every nerve excites. 

" Oft, from sensation, quick Volition springs, 
When pleasure thrills us, or when anguish stings ; 



And young Sensation, 1. 72. Sensation Is an exertion or change of 
the central parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it, beginning 
at some of those extreme parts of it, which reside in the muscles or 
organs of sense. Sensitive ideas are those which are preceded by the 
sensation of pleasure or pain, are termed Imagination, and constitute 
our dreams and reveries. 

Quick Volition springs, 1. 73. Volition is an exertion or change of 
the central parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it terminating 
in some of those extreme parts of it which reside in *he muscles and 
organs of sense. The vulgar use of the word memory is too unlimited 
for our purpose ; those ideas which we voluntarily recall, are here 
termed ideas of recollection, as when we will to repeat the alphabet 
backwards. And those ideas which are suggested to us by preceding 
ideas, are here termed ideas of suggestion, as whilst we repeat the 
alphabet in the usual order ; when by habits, previously acquired, 



10& ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Hence Recollection calls, with voice sublime, 
Immersed ideas from the wrecks of Time, 
With potent charm in lucid trains displays, 
Eventful stories of forgotten days. 
Hence Reason's efforts, good with ill contrast, 
Compare the present, future, and the past ; 80 

Each passing moment, unobserved, restrain 
The wild discordancies of Fancy^s train ; 



B is suggested by A, and C b)^ B, without any effort of deliberation. 
Reasoning is that operation of the sensorium by which we excite 
two or many tribes of ideas, and then re-excite the ideas in which 
they differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is 
called judgment; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it is called 
doubting. If we re-excite the ideas in which they differ, it is called 
distinguishing. If we re-excite those in which they correspond, it is 
called comparing. 

Each passing moment, 1. 81. During our waking hours, we per- 
petually compare the passing trains of our ideas with the known 
system of nature, and reject those which are incongruous with it ; 
this is explained in Zoonomia, Sect. XVII. 3.7. and is there termed 
Intuitive Analogy. When we sleep, the faculty of volition ceases to 
act, and in consequence the uncompared trains of ideas become 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 109 

But leave unchecked the Night's ideal streams, 
Or, sacred Muses ! your meridian dreams. 

" And last, Suggestion's mystic power, describes 
Ideal hosts arranged in trains or tribes. 
So, when the Nymph, with volant finger, rings 
Her dulcet harp, and shakes the sounding strings ; 
As with soft voice she trills the enamour'd song, 
Successive notes, unwill'd, the strain prolong ; 90 
The transient trains Association steers, 
And sweet vibrations charm the astonish' d ears. 



incongruous, and form the farrago of our dreams ; in which we never 
experience any surprise, or sense of novelty. 

Association steers, 1, Si- Association is an exertion or change of 
some extreme part of the sensorium, residing in the muscles and 
organs of sense, in consequence of some antecedent or attendant 
fibrous contractions. Associate ideas, therefore, are those which are 
preceded by other ideas or muscular motions, without the interven- 
tion of irritation, sensation, or volition, between them ; these are also 
termed ideas of suggestion. 



110 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

"On rapid feet, o'er hills, and plains, and rocks, 
Speed the scar'd leveret, and rapacious fox ; 
On rapid pinions cleave the fields above 
The hawk descending, and escaping dove ; 
With nicer nostril track the tainted ground, 
The hungry vulture, and the prowling hound ; 
Converge reflected light with nicer eye, 
The midnight owl, and microscopic fly ; 100 

With finer ear pursue their nightly course 
The listening lion, and the alarmed horse. 

" The branching forehead, with diverging horns, 
Crests the bold bull, the jealous stag adorns ; 



The branching forehead, 1. 103. The peculiarities of the shapes of 
animals which distinguish them from each other, are enumerated in 
Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4. 8. on Generation, and are believed to 
have been gradually formed from similar living fibres, and are varied 
by reproduction. Many of these parts of animals are there shown 
to have arisen from their three great desires of lust, hunger, and 
security. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. ill 

■ 

Fierce rival boars, with side-long fury, wield 

The pointed tusk, and guard with shoulder-shield ; 

Bounds the dread tiger o'er the affrighted heath, 

Arm' d with sharp talons, and resistless teeth ; 

The pouncing eagle bears in clenched claws 

The struggling lamb, and rends with ivory jaws ; 110 

The tropic eel, electric in his ire, 

Alarms the waves wtih unextinguished fire ; 

The fly of night illumes his airy way, 

And seeks with lucid lamp his sleeping prey ; 

Fierce on his foe the poisoning serpent springs, 

And insect armies dart their venom'd stints. 

" Proud Man alone, in wailing weakness born, 
| No horns protect him, and no plumes adorn ; 
\ No finer powers of nostril, ear, or eye, 
Teach the young Reasoner to pursue or fly. — 120 

The tropic eel, I. 111. Gymnotus electricus. 

The fy of night, 1. 113. Lampyris noctiluca, Fire-fly, 



112 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

NeiVd with fine touch above the bestial throngs, 
The hand, first gift of Heaven ! to man belongs ; 
Untipt with claws the circling fingers close, 
With rival points the bending thumbs oppose, 
Trace the nice lines of Form with sense refin'd* 
And clear ideas charm the thinking mind. 



The hand, first gift of Heaven, 1. 122. The human species, in some 
of their sensations, are much inferior to animals, yet the accuracy of 
the sense of touch, which they possess in so eminent a degree, gives 
them a great superiority of understanding ; as is well observed by 
the ingenious Mr. BufFon. The extremities of other animals, termi- 
nate in horns, and hoofs, and claws, very unfit for the sensation of 
touch ; whilst the human hand is finely adapted to encompass its 
•object with this organ of sense. Those animals who have clavicles 
or collar-bones, and thence use their fore-feet like hands, as cats. 
squirrels, monkeys, are more ingenious than other quadrupeds, ex- 
cept the elephant, who has a fine sense at the extremity of his pro- 
boscis ; and many insects, from the possessing liner organs of touch, 
have greater ingenuity, as spiders, bees, wasps. 

Trace the nice lines of form, 1. 125. When the idea of solidity is 
excited, a part of the extensive organ of touch is compressed by some 
external body, and this part of the sensorium, so compressed, exactly 
resembles in figure the figure of the body that compressed it. Hence 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 113 

. Whence the fine organs of the touch impart 
Ideal figure, source of every art ; 
Time, motion, number, sunshine, or the storm, 
But mark varieties in Nature's form, 130 



" Slow could the tangent organ wander o'er 
The rock-built mountain, and the winding shore • 



when we acquire the idea of solidity, we acquire at the same time 
the idea of figure ; and this idea of figure, or motion of a part of the 
organ of touch, exactly resembles in its figure the figure of the body 
that occasions it ; and thus exactly acquaints us with this property 
of the external world. 

Now as the whole universe, with all its parts, possesses a certain 
form or figure, if any part of it moves, that form or figure of the 
whole is varied. Hence, as motion is no other than a perpetual va- 
riation of figure, our idea of motion is also a real resemblance of the 
motion that produced it. 

Hence arises the certainty of the mathematical sciences, as they 
explain these properties of bodies, which are exactly resembled by 
our ideas of them, whilst we are obliged to collect almost all our 
other knowledge from experiment ; that is, by observing the effects 
exerted by one body upon another. 

p 



114 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. ; 

No apt ideas could the pigmy mite, 

Or embryon emmet, to the touch excite ; 

But as each mass the solar ray reflects, 

The eye's clear glass the transient beams collects. 

Bends to their focal point the rays that swerve, 

And paints the living image on the nerve. 

So in some village-barn, or festive hall, 

The spheric lens illumes the whiten* d wall ; 

O'er the bright field successive figures fleet, 140 

And motley shadows dance along the sheet. — 

Symbol of solid forms is coloured light, 

And the mute language of the touch is sight. 



The mute language of the touch, 1. 144. Our eyes observe a dif- 
ference cf colour, or of shade, in the prominences and depressions 
of objects, and that those shades uniformly vary when the sense of 
touch observes any variation . Hence when the retina becomes stim- 
ulated by colours or shades of light in a certain form, as in a circu- 
lar spot, we know by experience that this is a sign that a tangible 
body is before us ; and that its figure is resembled by the miniature 
figure of the part of the organ of vision that is thus stimulated. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 115 

" Hence, in Life's portico, starts young Surprise, 
With step retreating, and expanded eyes ; 



Here, whilst the stimulated part of the retina,, resembles exactly the 
•visible figure of the whole in miniature, the various kinds of stimuli 
from different colours, mark the visible figures of the minuter parts; 
and by habit we instantly recall the tangible figures. 

So, that though our visible ideas resemble in miniature, the outline 
•of the figure of coloured bodies, in other respects they serve only as 
a language, which by acquired associations, introduce the tangible 
ideas of bodies. Hence it is, that this sense is so readily deceived by 
the art of the painter to our amusement and instruction. The rea- 
der will find much very curious knowledge on this subject, in 
Bishop Berkely's Essay on Vision, a work of great ingenuity. 

Starts young Surprize, 1. 145. Surprise is occasioned by the sud- 
den interruption of the usual trains of our ideas, by any violent stim- 
ulus from external objects, as from the unexpected discharge of a 
pistol, and hence does not exist in our dreams, because our external 
senses are closed or inirritable. The fetus in the womb must expe- 
rience many sensations, as of resistance, figure, fluidity, warmth, 
motion, rest, exertion, taste ; and must consequently possess trains 
both of waking and sleeping ideas. Surprise must therefore be 
strongly excited at its nativity, as those trains of ideas must instantly 
be dissevered by the sudden and violent sensations occasioned by the 
dry and cold atmosphere, and the hardness of external bodies, light, 



116 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The virgin, Novelty, whose radiant train 

Soars o'er the clouds,or sinks beneath the main, 

With sweetly-mutable seductive charms, 

Thrills the young sense, the tender heart alarms. 150 

Then Curiosity, with tracing hands, 

And meeting lips, the lines of form demands, 



sound, and odours : which are accompanied with pleasure or pain, 
according to their quantity or intensity. 

As some of these sensations become familiar by repetition, other 
objects, not previously attended to, present themselves, and produce 
the idea of novelty, which is a less degree of surprise, and like that 
is not perceived in our dreams, though for another reason ; because 
in sleep we possess no voluntary power to compare our trains of 
ideas with our previous knowledge of nature, and do not therefore 
perceive their difference by intuitive analogy, from what usually 
occurs. 

As the novelty of our ideas is generally attended with pleasurable 
sensation, from this arises Curiosity, or a desire of examining a vari- 
ety of objects, hoping to find novelty, and the pleasure consequent 
to this degree of surprise ; See additional Note VII. 3. 

And meeting lips, 1. 152. Young children put small bodies into 
their mouths, when they are satiated with food, as well as when 
they are hungry, not with design to taste them, but use their lips as 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. .117 

BuoyM on light step, o'er ocean, earth, and sky, 
Rolls the bright mirror of her restless eye. 
While in wild groups tumultuous Passions stand, 
And Lust and Hunger head the Motley band ; 
Then Love and Rage succeed, and Hope and Fear, 
And nameless Vices close the gloomy rear ; 
Or young Philanthropy, with voice divine, 
Convokes the adoring Youth to Virtues shrine ; 160 
Who with raised eye, and pointing finger, leads 
To truths celestial, and immortal deeds. 

III. " As the pure language of the sight commands 
The clear ideas furnished by the hands ; 
Beauty^ s fine forms attract our wondering eyes, 
And soft alarms the pausing heart surprise. 



an organ of touch to distinguish the shape of them. Puppies, whose 
toes are terminated with nails, and who do not much use their fore- 
feet as hands, seem to have no other means of acquiring a knowledge 
of the forms of external bodies, and are therefore perpetually playing 
with things by taking them between their lips. 



113 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Warm from its cell, the tender infant born, 
Feels the cold chill of Life's aerial morn ; 
Seeks with spread hands the bosoms velvet orbs, 
With closing lips the milky fount absorbs ; 170 

And, as compress'd the dulcet streams distil, 
Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill ; 
Eyes with mute rapture every waving line, 
Prints with adoring kiss the Paphian shrine, 
And learns, erelong, the perfect form confessed, 
Ideal Beauty from its Mother's breast. 



Seeks toith spread hands, I. I6*y. These eight beautiful lines are 
copied from Mr. Bilsborrow's Address, prefixed to Zoonomia, and 
are translated from that work ; Sect. XVI. 6. 

Ideal Beaut?/, 1 . 1?6. Sentimental Love, as distinguished from 
the animal passion of that name, with which it is frequently accom- 
panied, consists in the desire or sensation of beholding, embracing, 
and saluting a beautiful object. 

The characteristic of beauty, therefore, is, that it is the object of 
love ; and, though many other objects, are, in common language, 
called beautiful, yet they are only called so metaphorically, and ouo-ht 
to be termed agreeable. A grecian temple may give us the pleasure 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 119 

" Now on swift wheels, descending like a star, 
Alights young Eros from his radiant car ; 
On angel-wings attendant Graces move, 
And hail the God of Sentimental Love. 180 



able idea of sublimity, a Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable 
idea of variety, and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility ; 
music and poetry may inspire our love by association of ideas ; but 
none of these, except metaphorical^, can be termed beautiful, as we 
have no wish to embrace or salute them. 

Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition, by the sense 
of vision, of those objects first, which have before inspired our love 
by the pleasure which they have afforded to many of our senses ; as 
to our sense of warmth, of touch, of smell, of taste, hunger and 
thirst ; and, secondly, which bear any analogy of form to such 
objects. 

Alights young Eros, 1. 178. There were two deities of Love be- 
longing to the heathen mythology, the one said to be celestial, and 
the other terrestrial. Aristophanes says, es Sable-winged Night 
produced an egg, from which sprung up like a blossom, Eros the 
lovely, the desirable, with his glossy golden wings." See Botanic 
Garden, Canto I. 1.412. Note. The other deity of Love, Cupido, 
seems of much later date, as he is not mentioned in the works 
of Homer, where there were so many apt situations to have introdu- 
ced him. 



120 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Earth at his feet extends her flowery bed, 
And bends her silver blossoms round his head ; 
Dark clouds dissolve, the warring winds subside, 
And smiling ocean calms his tossing tide, 
O'er the bright morn meridian lustres play, 
And Heaven salutes him with a flood of day. 

" Warm as the sun-beam, pure as driven snows. 
The enamour? d God for young Dione glows ; 
Drops the still tear, with sweet attention sighs, 
And woos the Goddess with adoring eyes ; 190 

Marks her white neck beneath the gauze's fold, 
Her ivory shoulders, and her locks of gold ; 
Drinks with mute ecstacy the transient glow, 
Which warms and tints her bosom's rising snow. 



Earth at his feet, I. 181. 

Te, Dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila coeli, 
Adventumque tuum ; tibi suaves daedala tellus 
Submittit flores ; tibi rident aequora ponti ; 
Placatumquc nitet diffuso lumine coelum. Luc ret- 






PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 121 

With holy kisses wanders o'er her charms, 
And clasps the Beauty in Platonic arms ; 
Or if the dewy hands of Sleep, unbid, 
O'er her blue eye-balls close the lovely lid, 
Watches each nascent smile, and fleeting grace, 
That plays in day-dreams o'er her blushing face ; 200 
Counts the fine mazes of the curls, that break 
Round her fair ear, and shade her damask cheek ; 
Drinks the pure fragrance of her breath, and sips 
With tenderest touch the roses of her lips ; — 
O'er female hearts with chaste seduction reigns, 
And binds Society in silken chains. 

IV. " If the wide eye the wavy lawns explores, 
The bending woodlands, or the winding shores, 



The wavy lawns, 1. 207. When the babe, soon after it is born in- 
to this cold world, is applied to its mother's bosom ; its sense of per- 
ceiving warmth is first agreeably affected '; next its sense of smell is 
delighted with the odour of her milk; then its taste is gratified by 

Q 



122 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise, 
Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies ; 210 

Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell 
Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell ; 



the flavour of it ; afterwards the appetites of hunger and of thirst, af* 
ford pleasure by the possession of their objects, and by the subse- 
quent digestion of the aliment ; and lastly the sense of touch is de- 
lighted by the softness and smoothness of the milky fountain, the 
source of such variety of happiness. 

All these various kinds of pleasure at length become associated with 
the form of the mother's breast ; which the infant embraces with 
its hands, presses with its lips, and watches with its eyes ; and thus 
acquires more accurate ideas of the form of its mother's bosom, than 
of the odour and flavour or warmth, which it perceives by its other 
senses. And hence at our maturer years, when any object of vision 
is presented to us, which by its waving or spiral lines bears any simil- 
itude to the form of the female bosom, whether it be found in a land- 
scape with soft gradation of rising and descending surface, or in the 
forms of some antique vases, or in other works of the pencil or the 
chisel, we feel a general glow of delight, which seems to influence all 
our senses ; and if the object be not too large, we experience an at- 
traction to embrace it with our arms, and to salute it with our lips, 
as we did in our early infancy the bosom of our mother. And thus 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 123 

Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns 

Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns, 

When on fine forms the waving lines impressed, 

Give the nice curves, which swell the female breast ; 

The countless joys the tender Mother pours 

Round the soft cradle of our infant hours, 

In lively trains of unextinct delight, 

Rise in our bosoms, recogniz'd by sight ; 220 

Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine, 

And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine, 

" Where Egypt's pyramids gigantic stand, 
And stretch their shadows o'er the shuddering sand ; 
Or where high rocks o'er ocean's dashing floods 
Wave high in air their panoply of woods ; 
Admiring Taste delights to stray beneath, 
With eye uplifted, and forgets to breathe ; 



we find, according to the ingenious idea of Hogarth, that the waving 
lines of beauty, were originally taken from the temple of Venus, 



124 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Or, as aloft his daring footsteps climb, 

Crests their high summits with his arm sublime. 230 

6 ' Where mouldering columns mark the lingering wreck 
Of Thebes, Palmyra, Babylon, Balbec ; 
The prostrate obelisk, or shattered dome, 
Uprooted pedestal, and yawning tomb, 



With his arm $u5li?ne t 1. 230. Objects of taste have been generally 
divided into the beautiful, the sublime, and the new ; and lately to 
these have been added the picturesque. The beautiful, so well ex- 
plained in Hogarth's analysis of beauty, consists of curved lines and 
smooth surfaces, as expressed in the preceding note; any object 
larger than usual, as a very large temple or a very large mountain, 
gives us the idea of sublimity ; with which is often confounded the 
terrific, and the melancholic; what is now termed picturesque, in- 
cludes objects, which are principally neither sublime nor beautiful, 
but which by their variety and intricacy, joined with a due degree of 
regularity or uniformity, convey to the mind an agreeable sentiment 
of novelty. Man}- other agreeable sentiments may be excited by vis- 
ible objects ; thus to the sublime and beautiful, may be added the 
terrific, tragic, melancholic, artless, &c. while novelty superinduces 
a charm upon them all. See Additional Note XIII. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 12,5 

On loitering steps reflective Taste surveys, 

With folded arms and sympathetic gaze ; 

Charmed with poetic Melancholy, treads 

O'er ruin'd towns and desolated meads ; 

Or rides sublime on Time's expanded wings, 

And views the fate of ever-changing things. 240 

ec When Beauty's streaming eyes her woes express, 
Or Virtue braves unmerited distress ; 
Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined, 
And new-born Pity charms the kindred mind ; 



Poetic melancholy treads, 1. 237. The pleasure arising from the con- 
templation of the ruins of ancient grandeur or of ancient happiness, 
and here termed poetic melancholy, arises from a combination of 
the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable idea of the grandeur or 
happiness of past times ; and becomes very interesting to us by fixing 
our attention more strongly on that grandeur and happiness, as the 
passion of Pity, mentioned in the succeeding note, is a combination of 
the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable one of beauty or of 
virtue. 



U6 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The enamour 5 d Sorrow every cheek bedews, 
And Taste impassioned woos the tragic Muse. 

" The rush-thatchM cottage on the purple moor, 
Where ruddy children frolic round the door, 
The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, 
The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, 250 



The tragic Muse, 1. 246. Why we are delighted with the scenical 
representations of Tragedy, which draw tears from our eyes, has been 
variously explained by different writers. The same distressful circum- 
stance attending an ugly or wicked person, affects us with grief or dis- 
gust ; but when distress occurs to a beauteous or virtuous person, the 
pleasurable idea of beauty or of virtue, becomes mixed with the pain- 
ful one of sorrow, and the passion of Pity is produced, which is a com- 
bination of love or esteem with sorrow ; and becomes highly interest- 
ing to us, by fixing our attention more intensely on thebeauteous or 
virtuous person. 

Other distressful scenes have been supposed to give pleasure to the 
spectator from exciting a comparative idea of his own happiness, as 
when a shipwreck is viewed by a person safe on shore, as mentioned 
by Lucretius, L. 3. But these dreadful situations belong rather to 
the terrible, or the horrid, than to the tragic ; and may be objects 
of curiosity from their novelty, but not of Taste, and must suggest 
much more pain than pleasure. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 127 

The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare 
Through the long tissue of his hoary hair; — 
As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall, 
And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall ; — 
"With rural charms the tranquil mind delight, 
And form a picture to the admiring sight. 
While Taste with pleasure bends his eye, surpris'd 
In modern days at Nature unchastis'd. 

" The Genius-Form, on silver slippers borne, 
With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn ; 260 

Nature unchastis'd, 1. 258. In cities or their vicinity, and even in 
the cultivated parts of the country, we rarely see undisguised nature ; 
the fields are ploughed, the meadows mown, the shrubs planted in 
rows for hedges, the trees deprived of their lower branches, and the 
animals, as horses, dogs, and sheep, are mutilated in respect to their 
tails or ears ; such is the useful or ill-employed activity of mankind ; 
all which alterations add to the formality of the soil, plants, trees, or 
animals; whence when natural objects are occasionally presented to 
us, as an uncultivated forest and its wild inhabitants, we are not only 
amused with greater variety of form, but are at the same time en- 
chanted by the charm of novelty, which is a less degree of Surprise, 
already spoken of in note on 1. 145 of this Canto. 



128 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer light, 

And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night ; 

With finer blush the vernal blossom glows, 

With sweeter breath enamour' d Zephyr blows, 

The limpid streams with gentler murmurs pass, 

And gayer colours tinge the watery glass, 

Charm' d round his steps, along the enchanted groves, 

Flit the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves. 

V. " Alive, each moment of the transient hour, 
When Rest accumulates sensorial power, 270 



When rest accumulates, 1. 2/0, The accumulation of the spirit of 
animation, when those parts of the system rest, which are usually in 
motion, produces a disagreeable sensation. Whence the pain of cold 
and of hunger, and the irksomeness of a continued attitude, and of an 
indolent life ; and hence the propensity to action in those confined 
animals, which have been accustomed to activity, as is seen in the 
motions of a squirrel in a cage ; which uses perpetual exertion to ex- 
haust a part of its accumulated sensorial power. This is one source 
of our general propensity to action ; another perhaps arises from our 
curiosity or expectation of novelty, mentioned in the note on 1. 145v 
©f this canto. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 129 

The impatient Senses, goaded to contract, 
Forge new ideas, changing as they act ; 
And, in long streams dissevered, or concrete 
In countless tribes, the fleeting forms repeat, 
Which rise excited in Volition's trains, 
Or link the sparkling rings of Fancy's chains ; 
Or, as they flow from each translucent source, 
Pursue Association's endless course. 

" Hence when the inquiring hands, with contact fine, 
Trace on hard forms the circumscribing line ; 280 

Which then the language of the rolling eyes, 
From distant scenes of earth and heaven supplies ; 



But the immediate cause of our propensity to imitation, above that 
of other animals, arises from the greater facility, with which by the 
sense of touch we acquire the ideas of the outlines of objects, and 
afterwards in consequence by the sense of sight ; this seems to have 
been observed by Aristotle, who calls man, " the imitative animal y" 
see Zoonomia, Vol, I. Sect. XXII. 



R 



ISO ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Those clear ideas of the touch and sight, 

Rouse the quick sense to anguish or delight i 

Whence the fine power of Imitation springs, 

And apes the outlines of external things ; 

With ceaseless action to the world imparts 

All moral virtues, languages, and arts. 

First the charmed Mind mechanic powers collects, 

Means for some end, and causes of effects ; 290 

Then learns from other Minds their joys and fears, 

Contagious smiles and sympathetic tears. 

" What one fine stimulated Sense discerns, 
Another Sense by Imitation learns. — 



Ail moral virtues, 1. 288. See the sequel of this Canto, 1. 453. on 
sympathy ; and 1, 231 on language ; and the subsequent lines on the 
arts of painting and architecture. 

Another sense, 1. 294. As the part of the organs of touch or of sight, 
which is stimulated into action by a tangible or visible object, must 
resemble in figure at least the figure of that object, as it thus con- 
stitutes an idea; it may be said to imitate the figure of that object; 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 131 

So in the graceful dance, the step sublime, 
Learns from the ear the concordance of Time. 
So, when the pen of some young artist, prints 
Recumbent Nymphs in Titian's living tints ; 
The glowing limb, fair cheek, and flowing hair, 
Respiring bosom, and seductive air, 300 

He justly copies, with enamoured sigh, 
From Beauty's image pictur'd on his eye, 

" Thus when great Angelo, in wondering Rome, 
Fix'd the vast pillars of Saint Peter's dome, 



and thus imitation may be esteemed coevel with the existence both of 
man and other animals ; but this would confound perception with 
imitation ; which latter is better defined from the actions of one sense 
copying those of another. 

Thus when great Angelo , 1, 303. The origin of this propensity to 
imitation has not been deduced from any known principle ; when any 
action presents itself to the view of a child, as of whetting a knife, 
or threading a needle; the parts of this action in respect of time, 
motion, figure, are imitated by parts of the retina of his eye ; toper- 
form this action therefore with his hands, is easier to him than .to in- 






132 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Reared rocks on rocks sublime, and hung on high 
A new Pantheon in the affrighted sky, 
Each massy pier, now joinM and now aloof, 
The figured architraves, and vaulted roof, 
Ailes, whose broad curves gigantic ribs sustain, 
Where holy echoes chant the adoring strain ; 310 

The central altar, sacred to the Lord, 
Admir'd by Sages, and by Saints adored, 



vent any new action ; because it consists in repeating with another set 
of fibres, viz. with the moving muscles, what he had just performed 
by some parts of the retina ; just as in dancing we transfer the times 
of the motions from the actions of the auditory nerves, to the muscles 
of the limbs. Imitation, therefore, consists of repetition, which is 
the easiest kind of animal action ; as the ideas or motions, become 
presently associated together, which adds to the facility of their 
production ; as shown in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2. 

It should be added, that as our ideas, when we perceive external 
objects, are believed to consist in the actions of the immediate organs 
of sense, in consequence of the stimulus of those objects ; so when we 
think of external objects, our ideas are believed to consist in the re- 
petitions of the actions of the immediate organs of sense, excited by 
ihe other.sensorial powers of volition, sensation, or association. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 133 

Whose brazen canopy ascends sublime, 
On spiral columns unafraid of Time, 
Were first by Fancy, in ethereal dyes, 
Plann'd on the rolling tablets of his eyes ; 
And his true hand, with imitation fine, 
TracM from his Retina the grand design. 

" The Muse of Mimicry, in every age, 
With silent language charms the attentive stage ; 320 
The Monarch's stately step, and tragic pause, 
The Hero bleeding in his country's cause, 

The Muse of Mimicry, 1. 319. Much of the pleasure received from 
the drawings of flowers finely finished, or of portraits, is derived 
from their imitation or resemblance of the objects or persons which 
they represent, The same occurs in the pleasure we receive from 
mimicry on the stage ; we are surprised at the accuracy of its enacted 
resemblance. Some part of the pleasure received from architecture, 
as when we contemplate the internal structure of gothic temples, as 
of King's College chapel in Cambridge, or of Lincoln Cathedral, 
may arise also from their imitation or resemblance of those superb 
avenues of large trees, which were formerly appropriated to religious 
ceremonies. 



13-i ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

O'er her fond child the dying Mother's tears, 
The Lover's ardor, and the Virgin's fears ; 
The tittering Nymph, that tries her comic task, 
Bounds on the scene, and peeps behind her mask, 
The Punch and Harlequin, and graver throng, 
That shake the theatre with dance and song, 
With endless trains of Angers, Loves, and Mirths, 
Owe to the Muse of Mimicry their births. 330 

" Hence to clear images of form, belong 
The sculptor's statue, and the poet's song, 
The painter's landscape, and the builder's plan, 
And Imitation marks the mind of Man. 



Imitation marks, 1. 334. Many other curious instances of one part 
of the animal system imitating another part of it, as in some con- 
tagious diseases ; and also of some animals imitating each other, are 
given in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 5. To which may be added, 
that this propensity to imitation not only appears in the actions of 
children, but in all the customs and fashions of the world ; many 
thousands tread in the beaten paths of others, who precede or accom- 
pany them, for one who traverses regions of his own discovery. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 135 

VI. " When strong desires or soft sensations move 
The astonish'd Intellect to rage or love ; 
Associate tribes of fibrous motions rise, 
Flush the red cheek, or light the laughing eyes. 
Whence ever-active Imitation finds 
The ideal trains that pass in kindred minds ; 340 

Her mimic arts associate thoughts excite, 
And the first Language enters at the sight. 



And the first Language , 1. 342, There are two ways by which we 
become acquainted with the passions of others : first, by having ob- 
served the effects of them, as of fear or anger, on our own bodies, 
we know at sight when others are under the influence of these affec- 
tions. So children, long before they can speak, or understand the 
language of their parents, may be frightened by an angry counte- 
nance, or soothed by smiles and blandishments. 

Secondly, when we put ourselves into the attitude that any pas* 
sion naturally occasions, we soon in some degree acquire that passion ; 
hence when those that scold, indulge themselves in loud oaths and 
violent actions of the arms, they increase their anger by the mode 
of expressing themselves ; and, on the contrary, the counterfeited 
smile of pleasure in disagreeable company, soon brings along with it 






136 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" Thus jealous quails, or village cocks, inspect 
Each others necks, with stiffen 'd plumes erect ; 
Smit with the wordless eloquence, they know 
The rival passion of the threatening foe. 
So when the famished wolves at midnight howl, 
Eell Serpents hiss, or fierce hyenas growl ; 
Indignant Lions rear their bristling mane, 
And lash their sides with undulating tail. 350 

Or when the Savage-Man, with clenched fist, 
Parades, the scowling champion of the list ; 
With brandished arms, and eyes that roll to know 
Where first to fix the meditated blow ; 
Association's mystic power combines 
Internal passions with external signs. 

a portion of the reality, as is well illustrated by Mr. Burke, (Essay 
on the Sublime and Beautiful.) These are natural signs by which 
we understand each other, and on this slender basis, is built all hu- 
man language ; for, without some natural signs, no artificial ones 
could have been invented or understood, as is very ingeniously ob- 
served by Dr. Reid. (Inquiry into the Human Mind.) 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 137 

"From these dumb gestures first the exchange began 
Of viewless thought in bird, and beast, and man ; 
And still the stage by mimic art displays, 
Historic pantomime in modern days ; 360 

And hence the enthusiast orator, affords 
Force to the feebler eloquence of words. 

"Thus the first Language, when we frown'd or smiPd, 
Rose from the cradle, Imitation's child ; 
Next to each thought associate sound accords, 
And forms the dulcet symphony of words ; 
The tongue, the lips articulate ; the throat 
With soft vibration modulates the note ; 
Love, pity, war, the shout, the song, the prayer, 
Form quick concussions of elastic air. 370 

Hence the first accents, bear in airy rings, 
The vocal symbols of ideal things, 

Hence the first accents, 1. 371. Words were originally the sighs of 
name of individual ideas ; but in all known languages, many of them, 

s 



138 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Name each nice change appulsive powers supply 
To the quick sense of touch, or ear or eye. 
Or in fine traits abstracted forms suggest 
Of Beauty, Wisdom, Number, Motion, Rest ; 



by changing their terminations, express more than one idea, as in 
cases of nouns, and the moods and tenses of verbs. Thus a whip, 
suggests a single idea of that instrument ; but " to whip," suggests 
an idea of action, joined with that of the instrument, and is then called 
a verb ; and " to be whipped," suggests an idea of being acted upon 
or suffering. Thus in most languages, two ideas are suggested by one 
word, by changing its termination ; as amor, love ; amare, to love; 
amari, to be loved. 

Nouns are the names of the ideas of things, first as they are receiv- 
ed by the stimulus of objects, or as they are afterwards repeated ; se- 
condly, they are names of more abstracted ideas, which do not sug- 
gest at the same time the external objects, by which they were ori- 
ginally excited ; or thirdly, of the operations of our minds, which 
are tern ed reflex ideas by metaphysical writers, or lastly, they are 
the names of our ideas of parts or properties of objects ; and arc 
termed by grammarians nouns adjective. 

Verbs are also in reality names of our ideas of things, or nouns, with 
the addition of another idea to them, as of acting or suffering ; or of 
more than one other annexed idea, as of time, and also of existence. 






PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 139 

Or, as within reflex ideas move, 

Trace the light steps of Reason, Rage, or Love. 

The next new sounds adjunctive thoughts recite. 

As hard, odorous, tuneful, sweet, or white. 380 

The next the fleeting images select 

Of action, suffering, causes, and effect; 

Or mark existence, with the march sublime 

O'er earth and ocean of recording Time. 

" The Giant Form on Nature's centre stands, 
And waves in ether his unnumber'd hands ; 
Whirls the bright planets in their silver spheres, 
And the vast sun round other systems steers ; 
Till the last trump, amid the thunder's roar, 
Sound the dread sentence "Time shall be no more !" 

These, with the numerous abbreviations, so well illustrated by Mr. 
Home Tooke in his Diversions of Parley, make up the general theo- 
ry of language, which consists of the symbols of ideas represented 
by vocal or written words ; or by parts of those words, as their ter- 
minations ; or by their disposition in respect to their order or succes- 
sion ; as further explained in Additional Note XIV. 



no ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" Last steps Abbreviation, bold and strong, 391 
And leads the volant trains of words along ; 
With sweet loquacity to Hermes springs, 
And decks his forehead and his feet with wings. 

VII. "As the soft lips and pliant tongue are taught, 
With other minds to interchange the thought ; 
And sound, the symbol of the sense, explains 
In parted links the long ideal trains ; 



In parted links, 1. 398. As our ideas consist of successive trains 
of the motions, or changes of figure, of the extremities of the nerves 
of on<? or more of our senses, as of the optic or auditory nerves ; 
these successive trains of motion, or configuration, are in common 
life divided into many links, to each of which a word or name is 
given, and it is catted an idea. This chain of ideas may be broken 
into more or fewer l\ n ks, or divided in different parts of it, by the 
customs of different people ; whence the meanings of the words of 
one language cannot always be txactly expressed by those of another ; 
and hence the acquirement of different languages in their infancy, 
may affect the modes of thinking and reasoning of whole nations, or 
of different classes of society ; as the words of them do not accurate-^ 
ly suggest the same ideas, or parts of ideal trains ; a circumstance 
which has not been sufficiently analysed. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND, 141 

From clear conceptions of external things, 

The facile power of Recollection springs. 400 

"Whence Reason's empire o'er the world presides, 
And man from brute, and man from man divides ; 
Compares and measures by imagin'd lines, 
Ellipses, circles, tangents, angles, sines ; 
Repeats with nice libration, and decrees 
In what each differs, and in what agrees ; 



Whence Reason 9 s empire, I. 401. The facility of the use of the 
voluntary power, which is owing to the possession of the clear ideas 
acquired by our superior sense of touch, and afterwards of vision, dis- 
tinguishes man from brutes, and has given him the empire of the 
world, with the power of improving nature by the exertions of art. 

Reasoning is that operation of the sensorium by which we excite 
two or many tribes of ideas, and then re-excite the ideas in which they 
differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is called 
judgment ; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it is called 
doubting. If we re-excite the ideas in w T hich they differ, it is called 
distinguishing. If we re-excite those in which they correspond, it is 
called comparing* 



142 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With quick Volitions unfatigued selects, 

Means for some end, and causes of effects ; 

All human science worth the name imparts, 

And builds on Nature's base the works of Arts. 410 

" The Wasp, fine architect, surrounds his domes 
With paper-foliage, and suspends his combs ; 



The Wasp , fine architect ,1.411. Those animals which possess a 
better sense of touch, are, in general, more ingenious than others. 
Those which have claviculas, or collar-bones, and thence use the 
forefeet as hands, as the monkey, squirrel, rat, are more ingenious in 
seizing their prey or escaping from danger. And the ingenuity of 
the elephant appears to arise from the sense of touch at the extremity 
of his proboscis, which has a prominence on one side of its cavity 
like a thumb, to close against the other side of it, by which I have 
seen him readily pick up a shilling which was thrown amongst the 
straw he stood upon. Hence the excellence of the sense of touch in 
many insects, seems to have given them wonderful ingenuity, so as to 
equal, or even excel mankind, in some of their arts and discoveries ; 
many of which may have been acquired in situations previous to their 
present ones, as the great globe itself, and all that it inhabit, appear 
to be in a perpetual state of mutation and improvement ; see Addi- 
tional Note IX. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 143 

Secured from frost, the Ree industrious dwells, 
And nils for Winter all her waxen cells ; 
The cunning Spider, with adhesive line, 
Weaves his firm net immeasurably fine ; 
The Wren, when embiyon eggs her cares engross, 
Seeks the soft down, and lines the cradling moss ; 
Conscious of change, the Silkworm-Nymphs begin, 
Attached to leaves, their gluten-threads to spin ; 420 
Then round and round they weave, with circling heads, 
Sphere within Sphere, and form their silken beds. 

" Say, did these fine volitions first commence 
From clear ideas of the tangent sense ; 
From sires to sons, by imitation caught, 
Or in dumb language by tradition taught I 
Or did they rise, in some primeval site 
Of larva-gnat, or microscopic mite ; 
And with instructive foresight, still await 
On each vicissitude of insect-state ? — 450 



144 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Wise to the present, nor to future blind, 
They link the reasoning reptile to mankind ! 
—Stoop, selfish Pride ! survey thy kindred forms, 
Thy brother Emmets, and thy sister Worms ! 

" Thy potent acts, Volition, still attend 
The means of pleasure to secure the end ; 



Thy potent acts, Volition, 1.433. It was before observed, how much 
the superior accuracy of our sense of touch contributes to increase 
our knowledge ; but it is the greater energy and activity of the power 
of volition, that marks mankind, and has given them the empire of 
the world. 

There is a criterion by which we may distinguish Our voluntary 
acts or thoughts : from those that are excited by our sensations, 
" The former are always employed about the means to acquire plea- 
surable objects, or to avoid painful ones ; while the latter are em- 
ployed about the possession of those that are already in our power." 

The ideas and actions of brutes, like those of children, are almost 
perpetually produced by their present pleasures or their present 
pains ; and they seldom busy themselves about the means of procuring 
future bliss, or of avoiding future misery. 

Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and the 
labouring for money, which are all only the means of procuring plea- 






PROGRESS OF THE MIND. U5 

To express his wishes and his wants design'd, 
Language, the means, distinguishes Mankind ; 
For future works in Art's ingenious schools, 
His hands, unwearied, form and finish tools ; 440 
He toils for money, future bliss to share, 
And shouts to Heaven his mercenary prayer. 
Sweet Hope delights him, frowning Fear alarms, 
And Vice and Virtue court him to their arms. 

" Unenvied eminence, in Nature's plan, 
Rise the reflective faculties of Man ; 
Labour to Rest the thinking Few prefer \ 
Know but to mourn ! and reason but to err ! — 
In Eden's groves, the cradle of the world, 
Bloom'd a fair tree with mystic flowers unfurl' d ; 450 
On bending branches, as aloft it sprung, 



sure ; and the praying to the Deity, as another means to procure 
happiness, are characteristic of human nature. 



146 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Forbid to taste, the fruit of Knowledge hung ; 

FlowM with sweet Innocence the tranquil hours, 

And Love and Beauty warniM the blissful bowers. 

Till our deluded Parents pluckM, erelong, 

The tempting fruit, and gathered Right and Wrong ; 

Whence Good and Evil, as in trains they pass, 

Reflection imag'd on her polish'd glass ; 

And Conscience felt, for blood by Hunger spilt, 

The pains of shame, of sympathy, and guilt. 460 

VIII. " Last, as observant Imitation stands, 
Turns her quick glance, and brandishes her hands, 



And gather' d Right and Wrong, 1. 456. Some philosophers have 
believed that the acquisition of knowledge diminishes the happiness 
of the possessor ; an opinion which seems to have been inculcated by 
the history of our first parents, who are said to have become miser- 
able from eating of the tree of knowledge. But as the foresight 
and the power of mankind are much increased by their voluntary 
exertions in the acquirement of knowledge, they may undoubtedly 
avoid many sources of evil, and procure many sources of good ; aud 
yet possess the pleasures of sense, or of imagination, as extensively 
as the brute or the savage. 



PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 147 

With mimic acts associate thoughts excites, 

And storms the soul with sorrows or delights ; 

Life's shadowy scenes are brightened and rehVd, 

And soft emotions mark the feeling mind. 

The Seraph, Sympathy, from Heaven descends, 

And bright o'er earth his beamy forehead bends ; 

On Man's cold heart celestial ardor flings, 

And showers affection from his sparkling wings ; 470 



And soft emotions , 1.466. From our aptitude to imitation, arises 
what is generally understood by the word sympathy, so well ex- 
plained by Dr. Smith of Glasgow. Thus the appearance of a cheerful 
countenance gives us pleasure, and of a melancholy one makes us 
sorrowful. Yawning, and sometimes vomiting, are thus propagated 
by sympathy ; and some people of delicate fibres, at the presence of 
a spectacle of misery, have felt pain in the same parts of their 
bodies, that were diseased or mangled in the object they saw. 

The effect of this powerful agent in the moral world, is the foun- 
dation of all our intellectual sympathies with the pains and pleasures 
of others, and is in consequence the source of all our virtues. For in 
what consists our sympathy with the miseries or with the joys of our 
fellow creatures, but in an involuntary excitation of ideas in some 
measure similar or imitative of those which we believe to exist in the 
minds of the persons whom we commiserate or congratulate ; 



148 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Rolls o'er the world his mild benignant eye, 
Hears the lone murmur, drinks the whisper'd sigh ; 
Lifts the clos'd latch of pale Misfortune 3 s door, 
Opes the clench'd hand of Avarice to the poor, 
Unbars the prison, liberates the slave, 
Sheds his soft sorrows o'er the untimely grave, 
Points with uplifted hand to realms above, 
And charms the world with universal love. 
O'er the thrill'd frame his words assuasive steal, 
And teach the selfish heart what others feel ; 480 

With sacred truth each erring thought control ; 
Bind sex to sex, and mingle soul with soul ; 
From heaven, He cried, descends the moral plan, 
And gives Society to savage man. 

"High on yon scroll, inscrib'd o'er Nature's shrine, 
Live in bright characters the words divine. 

High on yon scroll, 1. 485. The famous sentence of Socrates, " Know 
thyself," so celebrated by writers of antiquity, and said by them to 






PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 149 

" In Life's disastrous scenes to others do, 
What you would wish by others done to you." 
— Winds ! wide o'er earth the sacred law convey, 
Ye Nations, hear it ; and ye Kings, obey ! 490 

" Unbreathing wonder hush'd the adoring throng, 
Froze the broad eye, and chain' d the silent tongue ; 
Mute was the wail of Want and Misery's cry, 
And grateful Pity wip'd her lucid eye ; 
Peace, with sweet voice, the Seraph-form address'd, 
And Virtue clasp' d him to her throbbing breast." 



have descended from Heaven, however wise it may be, seems to be 
rather of a selfish nature ; and the author of it might have added 
" Know also other people. ' ' But the sacred maxims of the author of 
Christianity, " Do as you would be done by," and " Love your 
neighbour as yourself," include all our duties of benevolence and 
morality ; and, if sincerely obeyed by all nations, would a thousand- 
fold multiply the present happiness of mankind. 

END OF CANTO III. 



ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 



CANTO IV. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 



CONTENTS. 



Few affected by Sympathy, 1 . Cruelty of War, 11. Of brute 
animals, Wolf, Eagle, Lamb, Dove, Owl, Nightingale, 17. Of 
insects, Oestrus, Ichneumon, Libellula, 29. Wars of Vegeta- 
bles, 41 . Of fish, the Shark, Crocodile, Whale, 55 . The World 
a Slaughter-housei 66. Pains from Defect and from Excess of 
Stimulus. 71. Elf iety and Superstition, 77. Mania, 89. Asso- 
ciation, 93. Avaijce, Imposture, Ambition, Envy, Jealousy, 97. 
Floods, Volcanoes] Earthquakes, Famine, 109. Pestilence, 117* 
Pains from Sympathy, 123. II. Good out-balances Evil, 135. Life 
combines inanimaje Matter, and produces happiness by Irrita- 
tion, 145. As in viewing a Landscape, 159. In hearing Music, 171. 
By Sensation or Fancy in dreams, 183. The Patriot and the 
Nun, 197. Howard, Moira, Burdett, 205, By Volition, 223. 
Newton, Herschel, 233, Archimedes, Savery, 241. Isis, Ark- 
wright, 253. Letters and Printing, 265. Freedom of the 
Press, 273. By Association, 291. Ideas of Contiguity, Resem- 
blance, and of Cause and Effect, 299* Antinous, 319. Ceci- 
lia, 329. III. Life soon ceases, Births and Deaths alternate, 337 . 
Acorns, Poppy-seeds, Aphises, Snails Worms, Tadpoles, Herrings 
innumerable, 347. So Mankind, 369. All Nature teems with 
Life, 375. Dead Organic Matter soon revives, 383. Death is but 
a change of Form, Exclamation of St. Paul, 403. Happiness of 
the World increases, 405. The Phoenix, 411. System of Pytha- 
goras, 417 Rocks and Mountains produced by Organic Life, 429. 
Are Monuments of past Felicity, 447. Munificence of the 
Deity, 455. IV. Procession of Virgins, 469. Hymn to Hea- 
ven, 48 1 . Of Chaos, 439. Of Celestial Love, 499- Offering of 
Urania, 517 — 524. 



CANTO IV. 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

I. " JtlOW few," the Muse in plaintive accents cries, 

And mingles with her words pathetic sighs. — 

" How few, alas ! in Nature's wide domains, 

The sacred charm of Sympathy restrains ! 

Unchecked desires from appetite commence, 

And pure reflection yields to selfish sense ! 

— Blest is the Sage, who learn' d in Nature's laws, 

With nice distinction marks effect and cause ; 



Blest is the Sage, 1. 7. 

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas ; 
Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum, 
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 

Vjrg. Georg. II. 490; 
U 



154 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Who views the insatiate Grave, with eye sedate, 
Nor fears thy voice, inexorable Fate ! 10 

" When War, the Demon, lifts his banner higlr, 
And loud artillery rends the affrighted sky ; 
Swords clash with swords, on horses horses rush, 
Man tramples man, and nations nations crush ; 
Death, his vast scythe, with sweep enormous wields, 
And shuddering Pity quits the sanguine fields. 

" The wolf, escorted by his milk-drawn dam, 
Unknown to mercy, tears the guiltless lamb ; 
The towering eagle, darting from above, 
Unfeeling rends the inoffensive dove ; 20 

The lamb and dove on living nature feed, 
Crop the young herb, or crush the embryon seed. 



The towering eagle, 1. 1 9. 

Torva letfina lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam, 

Florentcm cytisutri sequitur lasciva capella. Virg. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. us 

Nor spares the loud owl, in her dusky flight, 
Smit with sweet notes, the minstrel of the night; 
Nor spares, enamour'd of his radiant form, 
The hungry nightingale the glowing worm ; 
Who with bright lamp alarms the midnight hour, 
Climbs the green stem, and slays the sleeping flower, 

" Fell Oestrus buries in her rapid course 
Her countless brood, in stag, or bull, or horse; 30 
Whose hungry larva eats its living way, 
Hatch'd by the warmth, and issues into day. 



Fell Oestrus buries, 1. 29. The gadfly, bot-fly, or sheep-fly : the 
larva lives in the bodies of cattle throughout the whole Winter ; it is 
extracted from their backs by an African bird called Buphaga. Ad- 
hering to the anus, it artfully introduces itself into the intestines of 
horses, and becomes so numerous in their stomachs, as sometimes to 
destroy them ; it climbs into the nostrils of sheep and calves, and 
producing a nest of young in a transparent hydatide in the frontal 
sinus, occasions the vertigo or turn of those animals. In Lapland it 
so attacks the rein deer, that the natives annually'travel with the herds 
from the woods to the mountains. Lin. Syst. Nat, 



156 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The wingM Ichneumon for her embryon young. 
Gores, with sharp horn, the catterpiller throng. 
The cruel larva mines its silky course, 
And tears the vitals of its ibstering nurse. 



The teing'd Ichneumon, 1.35. Linneus describes seventy-seven spe- 
cies of the ichneumon fly, some of which have a sting as long, and 
some twice as long as their bodies. Many of them insert -their eggs 
into various catterpillers, which when they are hatched, seem for a. 
time to prey on the reservoir of silk in the backs of those animals, 
designed for their own use to spin a cord to support them, or a bag 
to contain them, while they change from their larva form to a but- 
terfly ; as I have seen in above fifty cabbage-catterpillers. 

The ichneumon larva then makes its way out of the catterpillar, 
and spins itself a small cocoon like a silk-worm ; these cocoons are 
about the size of a small pin's head, and I have seen about ten 
of them on each cabbage-catterpillar, which soon dies after their 
exclusion. 

Other species of ichneumon insert their eggs into the aphis, and 
into the larva of the aphidivorous fly ; others into the bedeguar of 
rose trees, and the gall-nuts of oaks ; whence those excrescences 
seem to be produced, as well as the hydatides, in the frontal sinus 

of sheep and calves, by the stimulus of the larvae deposited in 
them. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 157 

While fierce Libellula, with jaws of steel, 

Ingulfs an insect-province at a meal ; 

Contending bee-swarms rise on rustling wings, 

And slay their thousands with envenomed stings. 40 

" Yes ! smiling Flora, drives her armed car, 
Through the thick ranks of vegetable war ; 
Herb, shrub, and tree, with strong emotions rise 
For light and air, and battle in the skies ; 
Whose roots, diverging, with opposing toil, 
Contend below for moisture and for soil ; 



While fierce Libellula, 1.37. The Libellula or Dragon-fly, is said 
to be a most voracious animal : Lirmeus says, in their perfect state, 
they are the hawks to naked winged flies ; in their larva state, they 
run beneath the water, and are the cruel crocodiles of aquatic in- 
sects. Syst. Nat. 

Contending bee-swarms, I. 39- Stronger bee-swarms frequently 
attack weak hives, and in two or three days destroy them, and carry 
away their honey ; this I once prevented by removing the attacked 
hive, after the first day's battle, to a distinct part of the garden. See 
Phytologia, Sect. XIV. 3.7. 



158 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Round the tall Elm the flattering Ivies bend, 

And strangle, as they clasp, their struggling friend ; 

EnvenomM dews from Mancinella flow, 

And scald with caustic touch the tribes below 4 50 

Dense shadowy leaves, on stems aspiring borne, 

With blight and mildew thin the realms of corn ; 

And insect hordes, with restless tooth, devour 

The unfolded bud, and pierce the ravelPd flower. 

" In ocean's pearly haunts, the waves beneath, 
Sits the grim monarch of insatiate Death ; 
The shark rapacious, with descending blow, 
Darts on the scaly brood that swims below ; 



The shark rapacious, 1.5/. The shark lias three rows of sharp teeth 
-within each other, which he can bend downwards internally to 
admit larger prey, and raise to prevent its return ; his snout hangs 
so far over his mouth, that he is necessitated to turn upon his back, 
when he takes fish that swim over him, and hence seems peculiarly 
formed to catch those that swim under him. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 159 

The crawling crocodiles, beneath that move, 

Arrest, with rising jaw, the tribes above ; 60 

With monstrous gape, sepulchral whales devour 

Shoals at a gulp, a million in an hour. 

— Air, earth, and ocean, to astonished day, 

One scene of blood, one mighty tomb display ! 

From Hunger's arm the shafts of Death are hurled, 

And one great Slaughter-house the warring world I 



The crawling crocodiles, I, 59. As this animal lives chiefly at the 
bottom of the rivers, which he frequents, he has the power of open- 
ing the upper jaw as well as the under one, and thus with greater 
facility, catches the fish or water- fowl which swim over him. 

One great slaughter-house, 1. 66. As vegetables are an inferior order 
of animals fixed to the soil ; and as the locomotive animals prey upon 
them, or upon each other ; the world may indeed be said to be one 
great slaughter-house. As the digested food of vegetables consists 
principally of sugar, and from this is produced again their mucilage, 
starch, and oil, and since animals are sustained by these vegetable 
productions, it would seem that the sugar-making process, carried on 
in vegetable vessels, was the great source of life to all organized beings. 
And that if our improved chemistry should ever discover the art of 



160 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" The brow of Man erect, with thought elate, 
Ducks to the mandate of resistless fate ; 
Nor Love retains him, nor can Virtue save 
Her sages, saints, or heroes from the grave. 70 

While cold and hunger by defect oppress, 
Repletion, heat, and labour by excess, 



making sugar from fossile or aerial matter, without the assistance of 
vegetation, food for animals would then become as plentiful as water, 
and they might live upon the earth without preying on each other, as 
thick as blades of grass, with no restraint to their numbers but the 
want of local room. 

It would seem that roots fixed in the earth, and leaves innumerable 
waving in the air, were necessary for the decomposition of waterand air, 
and the conversion of them into saccharine matter, which would have 
been not only cumbrous, but totally incompatible with the loco- 
motion of animal bodies. For how could a man or quadruped have 
carried on his head or back a forest of leaves, or have had long branch- 
ing lacteal or absorbent vessels terminating in the earth ? Animals 
therefore subsist on vegetables ; that is, they take the matter so pre- 
pared, and have organs to prepare it further for the purposes of 
higher animation and greater sensibility. 

While cold and hunger , I. 71. Those parts of our system, which are 
in health, excited into perpetual action, give us pain when they are 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 161 

The whip, the sting, the spur, the fiery brand, 
And, cursed Slavery ! chy iron hand ; 
And, led by Luxury, Disease's trains 
Load human life with unextinguished pains. 

" Here laughs Ebriety more fell than arms, 
And thins the nations with her fatal charms, 

not excited into action ; thus when the hands are for a time immersed 
in snow, an inaction of the cutaneous capillaries is induced, as is seen 
from the paleness of the skin, which is attended with the pain of 
coldness. So the pain of hunger is probably produced by the inaction 
of the muscular fibres of the stomach from the want of the stimulus 
of food. 

Thus those, who have used much voluntary exertion in their early 
years, and have continued to do so, till the decline of life commences, 
if they then lay aside their employment, whether that of a minister 
of state, a general of an army, or a merchant, or manufacturer ; 
they cease to have their faculties excited into their usual activity, and 
become unhappy, I suppose from the too great accumulation of the 
sensorial power of volition ; which wants the accustomed stimulus or 
motive to cause its expenditure. 

Here laughs Ebriety, I. 77* 

Saevior armis 

Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur orbem. Horace. 

w 



162 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With Gout, and Hydrops groaning in her train, 

And cold Debility ,, and grinning Pain, 80 

With harlot's smiles deluded man salutes, 

Revenging all his cruelties to brutes ! 

There the curst spells of Superstition blind, 

And fix her fetters on the tortured mind! 

She bids in dreams tormenting shapes appear, 

With shrieks that shock Imagination's ear, 

E'en o'er the grave a deeper shadow flings, 

And maddening Conscience darts a thousand stings. 



E y en o'er the grave, 1. 87. Many theatric preachers among the 
Methodists, successfully inculcate the fear of death and of Hell, and 
live luxuriously on the folly of their hearers. Those who suffer under 
this insanity, are generally most innocent and harmless people, who 
are then liable to accuse themselves of the greatest imaginary crimes ; 
and have so much intellectual cowardice, that they dare not reason 
about those things, which they are directed by their priests to believe. 
Where this intellectual cowardice is great, the voice of reason is in- 
effectual ; but that of ridicule may save many fiom these mad-mak- 
ing doctors, as the farces of Mr. Foot ; though it is too weak to cure 
those who are already hallucinated. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 163 

" There writhing Mania sits on Reason's throne, 
Or Melancholy marks it for her own, 90 

Sheds o'er the scene a voluntary gloom, 
Requests oblivion, and demands the tomb. 
And last Association's trains suggest 
Ideal ills, that harrow up the breast. 



And last association, 1. $3, The miseries and the felicities of life may 
be divided into those which arise in consequence of irritation, sen- 
sation, volition, and association; and consist in the actions of the 
extremities of the nerves of sense, which constitute our ideas ; if 
they are much more exerted than usual, or much less exerted than 
usual, they occasion pain, as when the finger is burnt in a candle ; or 
when we go into a cold bath ; while their natural de^ee of exertion 
produces the pleasure of life or existence. This pleasure is nevertheless 
increased, when the system is stimulated into rather stronger action 
than usual, as after a copious dinner, and at the beginning of intoxi- 
cation ; and diminished, when it is only excited into somewhat less 
activity than usual, which is termed ennui, or irksomeness of life. 

Ideal ilk, 1. 94. The tooth-edge is an instance of bodily pain occa- 
sioned by association of ideas Every one in his childhood has re- 
peatedly bit a part of the glass or earthen vessel, in which his food 
has been given him, and has thence had a disagreeable sensation iti 



164 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Call for the dead, from Time's overwhelming main* 
And bid departed Sorrow live again. 

" Here ragged Avarice, guards with bolted door, 
His useless treasures from the starving poor ; 
Loads the lorn hours with misery and care, 
And lives a beggar to enrich his heir. 100 

Unthinking crowds thy forms, Imposture, gull, 
A Saint in sackcloth, or a Wolf in wool. 
While mad with foolish fame, or drunk with power 9 
Ambition slays his thousands in an hour ;" 
Demoniac Envy scowls, with hagger'd mien, 



his teeth, attended at the same time with a jarring sound ; and ever 
after, when such a sound is accidentally produced, the disagreeable 
sensation of the teeth follows by association of ideas; this isfurthef 
elucidated in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 10. 

Enrich his heir, 1. 100. 

Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenitis, 
Ut locuples moriaris, egenti vivere fato. Juvenal. 

A Wo'f in wool, 1. 102. A wolf in sheep's clothing. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 165 

And blights the bloom of other's joys, unseen ; 
Or wrathful Jealousy invades the grove, 
And turns to night meridian beams of Love. 

" Here wide o'er earth impetuous waters sweep, 
And fields and forests rush into the deep ; 110 

Or dread Volcano, with explosion dire, 
Involves the mountains in a flood of fire ; 
Or yawning Earth, with closing jaws, inhumes 
Unwarned nation's, living, in their tombs ; 
Or Famine seizes, with her tiger-paw, 
And swallows millions with unsated maw. 

" There livid Pestilence, in league with Dearth, 
Walks forth malignant o'er the shuddering earth, 
Her rapid shafts with airs volcanic wings, 
Or steeps in putrid vaults her venom'd stings. 120 



With airs volcanic, 1. 1 19- Those epidemic complaints, which 
are generally termed influenza, are believed to arise from vapours 



166 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Arrests the young in beauty's vernal bloom, 
And bears the innoxious strangers to the tomb ! — > 

" And now. e'en I, whose verse reluctant sings 
The changeful state of sublunary things, 
Bend o'er Mortality with silent sighs, 
And wipe the secret tear-drops from my eyes, 
Hear through the night one universal groan, 
And mourn, unseen, for evils not my own, 
With restless limbs and throbbing heart complain, 
Stretch'd on the rack of sentimental pain ! 130 



thrown out from earthquakes in such abundance as to affect large 
regions of the atmosphere, see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV, 
1. 65. while the diseases properly termed contagious, originate from 
the putrid effiuvia of decomposing animal or vegetable matter. 

Sentimental pain, 1. 130. Children should be taught in their early 
education, to feel for all the remediable evils which they observe in 
others ; but they should at the same time be taught sufficient firmness 
of mind, not entirely to destroy their own happiness by their sympa- 
thising with too great sensibility with the numerous irremediable 
evils, which exist in the present system of the world ; as by indulging 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. I6f 

—Ah where can Sympathy, reflecting, find 
One bright idea to console the mind ? 
One. ray of light in this terrene abode 
To prove to Man the Goodness of his God }" 

II. "Hear, O ye Sons of Time !"theNymph replies,. 
Quick indignation darting from her eyes ; 
M When in soft tones the Muse lamenting sings, 
And weighs, with trem'lous hand, the sum of things, 
She loads the scale in melancholy mood, 
Presents the evil, but forgets the good. 140 



that kind of melancholy, they decrease the sum total of public hap- 
piness ; which is so far rather reprehensible than commendable. 
See Plan for Female Education by Dr. Darwin, Johnson, London, 
Sect. XVII, 

This has been carried to great excess in the East by the disciples 
of Confucius ; the Gentoos, during a famine in India, refused to eat 
the flesh of cows and of other animals, to satisfy their hunger, and 
save themselves from death. And at other times they have been 
said to permit fleas and musquitoes to feed upon them from this erro- 
neous sympathy. 



168 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

But if the beam some firmer hand suspends, 
And good and evil load the adverse ends ; 
With strong libration, where the Good abides. 
Quick nods the beam, the ponderous gold subsides. 

" Hear, O ye Sons of Time ! the powers of Life 
Arrest the elements, and stay their strife ; 
From wandering atoms, ethers, airs, and gas, 
By combination form the organic mass ; 
And, — as they seize, digest, secrete, — dispense 
The bliss of Being to the vital Ens. 150 



From wandering atoms, 1. 147. Had those ancient philosophers, 
who contended that the world was formed from atoms, ascribed 
their combinations to certain immutable properties, received from the 
hand of the Creator, such as general gravitation, chemical affinity, or 
animal appetency, instead of ascribing them to a blind chance ; the 
doctrine of atoms, as constituting or composing the material world, 
by the variety of their combinations, so far from leading the mind to 
atheism, would strengthen the demonstration of the existence of a 
Deity, as the first cause of all things ; because the analogy resulting 
from our perpetual experience of cause and effect, would have thus 
been exemplified through universal nature. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 169 

Hence, in bright groups, from Irritation rise, 
Young Pleasure's trains, and roll their azure eyes. 

" With fond delight we feel the potent charm, 
When Zephyrs cool us, or when sun-beams warm ; 
With fond delight inhale the fragrant flowers, 
Taste the sweet fruits, which bend the blushing bowers, 
Admire the music of the vernal grove, 
Or drink the raptures of delirious love. 

" So with long gaze, admiring eyes behold, 
The varied landscape all its lights unfold ; 160 



The varied landscape* 1. 160. The pleasure we feel on examin- 
ing a fine landscape, is derived from various sources ; as first the 
excitement of the retina of the eye into certain quantities of action ; 
which when there is in the optic nerve any accumulationvpf sensorial 
power, is always agreeable. 2. When it is excited into such suc- 
cessive actions, as relieve each other ; as when a limb has been long 
exerted in one direction, by stretchino; it in another ; as described in 
Zoonomia, Sect. XL. 6. on ocular spectra. 3. And lastly by the 

X 



17a ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Huge rocks, opposing, o'er the stream project T 

Their naked bosoms, and the beams reflect ; 
Wave high in air their fringed crests of wood, 
And checkered shadows dance upon the flood ; 
Green sloping lawns construct the sidelong scene,. 
And guide the sparkling rill that winds between ; 
Conduct, on murmuring wings, the pausing gale, 
And rural echoes talk along the vale ; 
Dim hills behind, in pomp aerial rise, 
Lift their blue tops, and melt into the skies. 170 

st So when by Handel tunM, to measured sounds* 
The trumpet vibrates, or the drum rebounds ; 
AlarmM, we listen with ecstatic wonder, 



associations of its parts with some agreeable sentiments or tastes, as of 
sublimity, beauty, utility, novelty ; and the objects suggesting other 
sentiments, which have lately been termed picturesque as mentioned 
in the note to Canto III, 1. 230 of this work. The two former of 
these sources of pleasure arises from irritation, the last from associ- 
ation. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 171 

To mimic battles, or imagined thunder* 
When the soft lute in sweet impassioned strains, 
Of cruel nymphs or broken vows complains, 
As on the breeze the fine vibration floats, 
We drink delighted the melodious notes,. 



We drink delighted* 1.. 178. The pleasure we experience from 
music, is, like that from viewing a landscape, derived from various 
sources ; as first, from the excitement of the auditory ner^ mt o certain 
quantities of action, when there exists any accurr ulat i° n of sensorial 
power. 2. When the auditory nerve is verted in such successive 
actions as relieve each other, like str^ nin g or yawning, as described 
in Botanic Garden, Vol, II, Ir^ude the third, these successions of 
sound are termed melody. dlcl tne * r combinations harmony. 3 . From 
the repetition of sour- 15 at certam intervals of time ; as we hear them 
with greater fa^ty and accuracy, when we expect them ; because 
they ar* chen excited by volition, as well as by irritation, or at least 
the tympanum is then better adapted to assist their production ; hence 
the two musical times or bars ; and hence the rhymes in poetry give 
pleasure, as well as the measure of the verse : and lastly, the pleasure 
we receive from music, arises from the associations of agreeable sen- 
timents with certain proportions, or repetitions, or quantities, or 
times of sounds which have been previously acquired ; as explained 
in Zoonomia Vol, I. Sect. XVI. 10. and Sect. XXII. % 



172 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

But when young Beauty, on the realms above, 
Bends her bright eye, and trills the tones of love ; 180 
Seraphic sounds enchant this nether sphere ; 
And " listening angels lean from Heaven to hear." 

cs Next, by Sensation led, new joys commence, 
From the fine movements of the excited sense ; 
In swarms ideal, urge their airy flight, 
Adorn i^e day-scenes, and illume the night. 
Her spells o'ei «U the hand of Fancy flings, 
Gives form and subsu nce t0 un real things ; 
With fruits and foliage deCr S t he barren waste, 
And brightens Life with sentiment, an( j taste ; 190 
Pleas'd o'er the level and the rule preslA^s, 
The painter's brush, the sculptor's chisel guides, 
With ray ethereal, lights the poet's fire. 
Tunes the rude pipe, or strings the heroic lyre ; 
Charm'd round the nymph, on frolic footsteps, move 
The angelic forms of Beauty, Grace, and Love. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 173 

" So dreams the Patriot, who indignant draws 
The sword of vengeance in his Country's cause ; 
Bright for his brows unfading honours bloom, 
Or kneeling Virgins weep around his tomb. 200 

So holy transports, in the cloister's shade, 
Play round thy toilet, visionary maid ! 
Charm'd, o'er thy bed, celestial voices sing, 
And Seraphs hover on enamour'd wing. 

"So Howard, Moira, Burdett, sought the cells, 
Where want, or woe, or guilt, in darkness dwells ; 
With Pity's torch illum'd the dread domains, 
Wip'd the wet eye, and eas'd the galling chains ; 
With hope's bright blushes warm'd the midnight air, 
And drove from earth the Demon of Despair. ■ 210 
Ere while emerging from the caves of night, 
The Friends of Man ascended into light ; 
With soft assuasive eloquence, address'd 
The ear of Power, to stay his stern behest ; 



174 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

At Mercy's call to stretch his arm, and save 
His tottering victims from the gaping grave. 
These, with sweet smiles, Imagination greets, 
For these she opens all her treasured sweets, 
Strews round their couch, by Pity's hand combined, 
Bright flowers of joy, the sunshine of the mind ; 220 
While Fame's loud trump with sounds applausive breathes,, 
And Virtue crowns them with immortal wreathes. 

|i 

" Thy acts, Volition, to the world impart 
The plans of Science with the works of art ; 
Give to proud Reason her comparing power, 
Warm every clime, and brighten every hour, 
In Life's first cradle, ere the dawn began 
Of young Society to polish man ; 
The staff that propp'd him, and the bow that arm'd, 
The boat that bore him, and the shed that warm'd, 230 
Fire, raiment, food, the ploughshare, and the sword, 
Arose, Volition, at thy plastic word, 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 175 

" By thee instructed, Newton's eye sublime 9 
MarkM the bright periods of revolving time ; 
ExplorM, in Nature's scenes, the effect and cause, 
And, charmed, unravell'd all her latent laws. 
Delighted Herschel, with reflected light, 
Pursues his radiant journey through the night ; 
Detects new guards, that roll their orbs afar 
In lucid ringlets round the Georgian star. 240 

" InspirM by thee, with scientific wand, 
Pleas'd Archimedes markM the figured sand ; 
Siez'd, with mechanic grasp, the approaching decks, 
And shook the assailants from the inverted wrecks. 
— Then cried the Sage, with grand effects elate, 
And proud to save the Syracusian state ; 



MarVd the figured sand, 1. 242. The ancient orators seem to have 
spoken disrespectfully of the mechanic philosophers. Cicero, men- 
tioning Archimedes, calls him Homunculus e pulvere et radio, allu- 
ding to the custom of drawing problems on the sand with a staff.. 



176 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

While crowds, exulting, shout their noisy mirth, 
ci (|fcyrhere to stand, and I will move the earth.' 
So ^(£tY guided his explosive steam 
In iron cells, to raise the balanced beam ; 2.50 

The Giant-form its ponderous mass uprears, 
Descending, nods, and seems to shake the spheres. 

" Led by Volition, on the banks of Nile, 
Where bloomM the waving flax on Delta* s isle, 
Pleas'd Isis taught the fibrous stems to bind, 
And part with hammers from the adhesive rind ; 



So Saver?/ guided, 1. 249. Captain Savery first applied the pressure 
of the atmosphere to raise water, in consequence of a vacuum pre- 
viously produced by the condensation of steam, though the Marquis 
of Worceser had before proposed to use for this purpose the expan- 
sive power of steam ; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto I. 1. 253. 
Mote. 

The saving flax, 1. 254. Flax is said to have been first discovered 
on the banks of the Nile, and Isis to have been the inventress of 

spinning and weaving. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 177 

With locks of flax to deck the distaff- pole, 

And whirl, with graceful bend, the dancing spole. 

In level lines the length of woof to spread, 

And dart the shuttle through the parting thread. 260 

So Arkwright taught from Cotton-pods to cull, 

And stretch in lines the vegetable wool ; 

With teeth of steel, its fibre-knots unfurPd, 

And with the silver tissue cloth 5 d the world. 

" Ages remote by thee, Volition, taught, 
ChainM down in characters, the winged thought ; 
With silent language markM the lettered ground, 
And gave to sight the evanescent sound. 
Now, happier lot ! enlightened realms possess 
The learned labours of the immortal Press ; 270 



So Arkwright taught, 1. 261. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. 
Canto II. 1. 87. Note. 

The immortal Press, 1. 270. The discovery of the art of Printing, 
has had so great influence on human affairs, that from thence may be 

Y 



173 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Nurs'd on whose lap the births of science thrive, 
And rising Arts the wrecks of Time survive. 

" Ye patriot heroes ! in the glorious cause 
Of Justice, Mercy, Liberty, and Laws, 
Who call to Virtue's shrine the British youth,. 
And shake the Senate with the voice of Truth ; 
Rouse the dull ear, the hood wink' d eye unbind, 
And give to energy the public mind ; 



dated a new aera in the history of mankind. As by the diffusion of 
general knowledge, both of the arst of taste and of useful sciences, the 
public mind has become improved to so great a degree, that though 
new impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of detect- 
ing them have improved with greater rapidity. Hence, since the 
introduction of printing, superstition has been much lessened by the 
reformation of religion ; and necromancy, astrology, chiromancy, 
witchcraft, and vampyrism, have vanished from all classes of society ; 
though some are still so weak in the present enlightened times, as to 
believe in the prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic trac- 
tors ; by this general diffusion of knowledge, if the liberty of the 
press be preserved, mankind will not be liable in this part of the 
world to sink into such abject slavery as exists at this day in China. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 179 

While rival realms, with blood unsated, wage 
Wide-wasting war, with fell demoniac rage ; 280 

In every clime, while army army meets, 
And oceans groan beneath contending fleets, 
Oh save ! — oh save, in this eventful hour 
The tree of knowledge from the axe of power ; 
With fostering peace the suffering nations bless, 
And guard the freedom of the immortal Press ! 
So shall your deathless fame, from age to age, 
Survive, recorded in the historic page ; 
And future bards, with voice inspired, prolong 
Your sacred names, immortaliz'd in song. 290 

" Thy power, Association, next affords 
Ideal trains, annexed to volant words, 
Conveys to listening ears, the thought superb, 
And gives to Language her expressive verb ; 



Her expressive verb> 1. 294. The verb, or the word, Las been so 
called from its being the most expressive term in all languages ; as it 



180 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Which in one changeful sound, suggests the fact, 
At once to be, to suffer, or to act ; 
And marks, on rapid wing, o'er every clime, 
The viewless flight of evanescent Time. 

" Call'd by thy voice, contiguous thoughts embrace, 
In endless streams arranged by Time or Place ; 300 



suggests the ideas of existence, action or suffering, and of time ; see 
the Note on Canto III. 1. 371, of this work. 

Call V by thy voice, 1. 299« The numerous trains of associated ideas 
are divided by Mr. Hume into three classes, which he has termed 
contiguity, causation, and resemblance. Nor should we wonder to 
find them thus connected together, since it is the business of our 
lives to dispose them into these three classes ; and we become valu- 
able to ourselves and our friends as we succeed in it. Those who 
have combined an extensive class of ideas by the contiguity of time 
or place, are men learned in t:he history of mankind, and of the 
sciences they have cultivated. Those who have connected a great 
class of ideas of resemblances, possess the source of the ornaments of 
poetry and oratory, and of all rational analogy. While those who 
have connected great classes of ideas of causation, are furnished with 
the powers of producing effects. These are the men of active wisdom 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 181 

The Muse historic, hence in every age, 
Gives to the world her interesting page ; 
While in bright landscape, from her moving pen, 
Rise the fine tints of manners and of men. 

" Call'd by thy voice, Resemblance next describes, 
Her sister-thoughts, in lucid trains or tribes ; 
Whence pleas* d Imagination, oft combines, 
By loose analogies, her fair designs ; 
Each winning grace of polish* d wit bestows, 
To deck the Nymphs of Poetry and Prose, 310 



who lead armies to victory, and kingdoms to prosperity ; or discover 
and improve the sciences which meliorate and adorn the condition 
of humanity. 

Polished wit bestows, 1. 309. Mr. Locke defines wit to consist of 
an assemblage of ideas, brought together with quickness and variety, 
wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to 
makeup pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy. To 
which Mr. Addison adds, that these must occasion surprise as well 
as delight ; Spectator, Vol. I. No. LXII. See Note on Canto III. 
1. 145. and Additional Note, VII. 3. Perhaps wit in the extended 



182 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" Last, at thy potent nod, Effect and Cause 
Walk hand in hand, accordant to thy laws ; 
Rise at Volition's call, in groups combin'd, 
Amuse, delight, instruct, and serve Mankind ; 
Bid, rais'd in air, the ponderous structure stand , 
Or pour obedient rivers through the land ; 
With cars unnumber'd, crowd the living streets, 
Or people oceans with triumphant fleets. 

" Thy magic touch, imagin'd forms supplies 
From coloured light, the language of the eyes ; 320 
On Memory's page departed hours inscribes, 
Sweet scenes of youth, and Pleasure's vanished tribes. 



use of the word, may mean to express all kinds of fine writing, as the 
word Taste is applied to all agreeable visible objects, and thus wit may 
mean descriptive sublimity, beauty, the pathetic, or ridiculous, but 
when used in the confined sense, as by Mr. Locke and Mr. Addison, 
as above, it may probably be better defined, a combination of ideas 
with agreeable novelty, as this may be effected by opposition as well 
as by resemblance. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. m 

By thee, Antinous, leads the dance sublime, 
On wavy step, and moves in measured time : 
CharmM round the Youth, successive Graces throng, 
And Ease conducts him, as he moves along ; 
Unbreathing crowds the floating form admire, 
And Vestal bosoms feel forbidden fire. 

" When wrapt Cecilia breathes her matin vow, 
And lifts to Heaven her fair adoring brow ; 330 

From her sweet lips, and rising bosom, part 
ImpassionM notes, that thrill the melting heart ; 
TunM by thy hand, the dulcet harp she rings, 
And sounds responsive echo from the strings ; 
Bright scenes of bliss, in trains suggested move, 
And charm the world with melody and love. 

III. " Soon the fair forms, with vital being blessM, 
Time's feeble children, lose the boon possessed, 






184 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

The goaded fibre ceases to obey, 
And sense deserts the uncontractile clay ; 340 

While births unnumbered, ere the parents die, 
The hourly waste of lovely life supply ; 
And thus, alternating with death, fulfil 
The silent mandates of the Almighty Will ; 
Whose hand, unseen, the works of nature dooms, 
By laws unknown — who gives, and who resumes* 

" Each pregnant Oak ten thousand acorns forms, 
Profusely scattered by autumnal storms ; 
Ten thousand seeds each pregnant poppy sheds, 
Profusely scattered from its waving heads ; 350 



The goaded fibrz, 1, 339. Old age consists in the inaptitude to 
motion, from the in-irritability of the system, and the consequent 
want of fibrous contraction ; see Additional Note VII, 

Ten thousand seeds, 1. 349. The fertility of plants, in respect to 
seeds, is often remarkable ; from one root, in one Summer, the seeds 
of zea, maize, amount to 2000 ; of inula, elecampane, to 3000 ; of 
helianthus, sunflower, to 4000 ; of papaver, poppy, 32000 ; of nico- 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1S6 

The countless Aphides, prolific tribe, 

With greedy trunks the honey'd sap imbibe ; 



tiana, tobacco, to 40320 ; to this must be added the perennial roots, 
and the buds. Buds, which are so many herbs, in one tree, the 
trunk of which does not exceed a span in thickness, frequently 
amount to 10000 ; Lin. Phil, Bot. p. 86. 

The countless Aphides, 1. 351. The aphises, pucerons, or vine- 
fretters, are hatched from an egg in the early Spring, and are all call- 
ed females, as they produce a living offspring about once in a fort- 
night to the ninth generation, which are also all of them females ; 
then males are also produced, and by their intercourse, the females 
become oviparous, and deposite their eggs on the branches, or in the 
bark, to be hatched in the ensuing Spring. 

This double mode of reproduction, so exactly resembling the buds 
and seeds of trees, accounts for the wonderful increase of this insect, 
which, according to Dr. Richardson, consists often generations, and 
of fifty at an average in each generation ; so that the sum of fifty 
multiplied by fifty, and that product again multiplied by fifty-nine 
times, would give the product of one egg only in countless millions ; 
to which must be added the innumerable eggs laid b}^ the tenth ge- 
neration for the renovation of their progeny in the ensuing Spring. 

The honey 9 d sap, 1, 352. The aphis punctures with its fine pro- 
boscis the sap-vessels of vegetables without any visible wound, and 



186 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Swarm on each leaf, with eggs or embryons big, 
And pendent nations tenant every twig. 
Amorous with double sex, the snail and worm, 
ScoopM in the soil, their cradling caverns form ; 
Heap their white eggs, secure from frost and floods, 
And crowd their nurseries with uncounted broods. 
Ere yet with wavy tail the tadpole swims, 359 



thus drinks the sap-juice, or vegetable chyle, as it ascends. Hence 
on the twigs of trees they stand with their heads downwards, as I 
have observed, to acquire this ascending sap-juice with greater facility. 
The honey-dew on the upper surface of leaves is evacuated by these 
insects, as they hang on the underside of the leaves above ; when 
they take too much of this saccharine juice, during the vernal or mid- 
summer sap-flow of most vegetables ; the black powder on leaves 
is also their excrement at other times. The vegetable world seems 
to have escaped total destruction from this insect by the number of 
flies, which in their larva state prey upon them ; and by the ichneu- 
mon fly, which deposits its eggs in them. Some vegetables put forth 
stiff bristles with points round their young shoots, as the moss-rose, 
apparently to prevent the depredation of these insects, so injurious to 
them, by robbing them of their chyle or nourishment. 

The tadpole swims, 1. 359. The progress of a tadpole from a fish 
to a quadruped, by his gradually putting forth his limbs, and at length 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 187 

Breathes with new lungs, or tries his nascent limbs ! 
Her countless shoals the amphibious frog forsakes, 
And living islands float upon the lakes. 
The migrant herring steers her myriad bands 
From seas of ice, to visit warmer strands ; 
UnfathomM depths and climes unknown, explores, 
And covers with her spawn unmeasur'd shores. 
— All these, increasing by successive birth, 
Would each o'erpeople ocean, air, and earth, 

" So human progenies, if unrestrained, 
By climate friended, and by food sustained, 370 

O'er seas and soils, prolific hordes ! would spread 
Ere long, and deluge their terraqueous bed ; 
But war and pestilence, disease, and dearth, 
Sweep the superfluous myriads from the earth. 



leaving the water, and breathing the dry air, is a subject of great cu- 
riosity, as it resembles so much the incipient state of all other quad- 
rupeds, and men, who are aquatic animals in the uterus, and become 
aerial ones at their birth. 



188 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Thus while new forms reviving tribes acquire 
Each passing moment, as the old expire ; 
Like insects swarming in the noontide bower, 
Rise into being, and exist an hour ; 
The births and deaths contend with equal strife, 
And every pore of Nature teems with Life ; 380 

Which buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles, 
And Earth's vast surface kindles as it rolls ! 

" Hence when a monarch or a mushroom dies, 
Awhile extinct the organic matter lies ; 
But, as a few short hours or years revolve, 
Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve ; 



Which buds or breathes, I. 381, Organic bodies, besides the car- 
bon, hydrogen, azote, and the oxygen and heat, which are combined 
with them, require to be also immersed in loose heat and loose oxygen 
to preserve their mutable existence ; and hence life only exists on or 
near the surface of the earth ; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV, 
1. 419. L'organization, le sentiment, le movement spontane, la 
vie, n'existent qu'a la surface de la terre, etdansles lieux exposes a 
la lumiere. Traite de Chiraie par M. Lavoisier, Tom. I, p, 202. 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 189 

Born to new life unnumber'd insects pant, 
Now buds surround the microscopic plant ; 
Whose embryon senses and unwearied frames, 
Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames. 390 

Renascent joys from irritation spring, 

Stretch the long root, or wave the aurelian wing. 

" When thus a squadron or an army yields, 
And festering carnage loads the waves or fields ; 
When few from famines or from plagues survive, 
Or earthquakes swallow half a realm alive ; — 
While Nature sinks in Time's destructive storms, 
The wrecks of Death are but a change of forms ; 



Bom to new life, I. 387. From the innumerable births of the 
larger insects, and the spontaneous productions of the microscopic 
ones, every part of organic matter from the recrements of dead vege- 
table or animal bodies, on or near the surface of the earth, becomes 
again presently re-animated ; which by increasing the number and 
quantity of living organizations, though many of them exist but for 
a short time, adds to the sum total of terrestrial happiness. 



190 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Emerging matter from the grave returns, 
Feels new desires, with new sensations burns ; 400 
With youth's first bloom a finer sense acquires, 
And Loves and Pleasures fan the rising fires.—* 
Thus sainted Paul, ' O Death V exulting cries, 
* Where is thy sting ? O Grave ! thy victories ?' 

" Immortal Happiness from realms deceased 
Wakes, as from sleep, unlessenM or increased ; 
Calls to the wise, in accents loud and clear, 
Sooths with sweet tones the sympathetic ear ; 
Informs and fires the revivescent clay, 
And lights the dawn of Life's returning day. 410 



Thus sainted Paul, 1. 403. The doctrine of St. Paul teaches the 
resurrection of the body in an incorruptible and glorified state, with 
consciousness of its previous existence ; he therefore justly exults 
over the sting of death, and the victory of the grave. 

And lights the dawn, 1. 410. The sum total of the happiness of 
organized nature is probably increased rather than diminished, when 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 191 

*< So when Arabia's Bird, by age oppress'd, 
Consumes, delighted, on his spicy nest ; 
A filial Phoenix from his ashes springs, 
Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings ; 
Ascends, exulting, from his funeral flame, 
And soars and shines, another and the same. 

" So erst the Sage, with scientific truth, 
In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth ; 



one large old animal dies, and is converted into many thousand 
young ones ; which are produced or supported with their numerous 
progeny by the same organic matter. Linneus asserts, that three of 
the flies, called musca vomitoria, will consume the body of a dead 
horse, as soon as a lion can. Syst. Nat. 

So when Arabia's bird, 1. 41 1 . The story of the Phoenix- rising from 
its own ashes with a star upon its head, seems to have been an hiero- 
glyphic emblem of the destruction and resuscitation of all things ; 
see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. 1. 389. 

So erst the Sage, 1. 417. It is probable, that the perpetual transmi- 
gration of matter from one body to another, of all vegetables and 
animals, during their lives, as well as after their deaths, was observed 



192 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

With ceaseless change, how restless atoms pass, 
From life to life, a transmigrating mass ; 420 

How the same organs, which to day compose 
The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose, 
May, with to morrow* s sun, new forms compile, 
Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile. 
Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage, the moral plan, 
Than man should ever be the friend of man ; 
Should eye with tenderness all living forms, 
His brother-emmets, and his sister- worms. 

" Hear, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom, 
And read the characters that mark your tomb : 430 



by Pythagoras ; which he afterwards applied to the soul, or spirit of 
animation, and taught that it passed from one animal to another as 
a punishment for evil deeds, though without consciousness of its pre- 
vious existence ; and from this doctrine he inculcated a system oi" 
morality and benevolence, as all creatures thus became related to each 
other. 






OF GOOD AND EVIL. 193 

The marble mountain, and the sparry steep, 

Were built by myriad nations of the deep, — 

Age after age, who formed their spiral shells. 

Their sea-fan gardens, and their coral cells ; 

'Till central fires, with unextinguish'd sway, 

RaisM the primeval islands into day ; — 

The sand-filPd strata, stretch* d from pole to pole, 

Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal, 

Black ore of manganese, the zinky stone, 

And dusky steel on his magnetic throne, 440 

The marble mountain, 1. 431. From the increased knowledge in 
Geology during the present century, owing to the greater attention 
of philosophers to the situations of the different materials, which 
compose the strata of the earth, as well as to their chemical proper- 
ties, it seems clearly to appear, that the nucleus of the globe be- 
neath the ocean, consisted of granite ; and that on this the great beds 
of limestone were formed from the shells of marine animals during 
the innumerable primeval ages of the world ; and that whatever strata 
lie on these beds of limestone, or on the granite, where the limestone 
does not cover it, were formed after the elevation of islands and con- 
tinents above the surface of the sea, by the recrements of vegetables 
and of terrestrial animals ; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol. I. 

Additional Note XXIV. 

A a 



194 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

In deep morass, or eminence superb, 
Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb ; 
These, from their elements, by Life combined, 
Formed by digestion, and in glands refinM, 
Gave, by their just excitement of the sense, 
The Bliss of Being to the vital Ens. 

" Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands, 
Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands, 
Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight, 
Are mighty Monuments of past Delight ; 4,50 



Are mighty monuments, 1. 450. The reader is referred to a few pages 
on this subject in Phytologia, Sect. XIX. 7.1, where the felicity of 
organic life is considered more at large ; but it is propable that the 
most certain way to estimate the happiness and misery of organic 
beings ; as it depends on the actions of the organs of sense, which 
constitute ideas ; or cf the muscular fibres which perform locomotion ; 
would be to consider those actions, as they are produced or excited 
by the four sensorial powers of irritation, sensation, volition, and as- * 
sociation. A small volume on this subject by some ingenious writer, 
might not only amuse, as an object of curiosity, but by showing the 
world the immediate sources of their pains and pleasures, might teach 



OF GOOD AND EYIL. 19,5 

Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives 
With vanquished Death,-—and Happiness survives ; 
How Life, increasing, peoples every clime, 
And young renascent Nature conquers Time ; 
— And high in golden characters record, 
The immense munificence of Nature's Lord ! — 



the means to avoid the one, and to procure the other, and thus 
contribute both ways to increase the sum total of organic happiness. 
How Life increasing, 1. 453. Not only the vast calcareous pro- 
vinces, which form so great a part of the terraqueous globe, and also 
"whatever rests upon them, as clay, marl, sand, and coal, were formed 
from the fluid elements of heat, oxygen, azote, and hydrogen, along 
with carbon, phosphorus, and perhaps a few other substances, which 
the science of chemistry has not yet decomposed ; and gave the 
pleasure of life to the animals and vegetables, which formed them ; 
and thus constitute monuments of <he past happiness of those organ- 
ized beino-s. But as those remains of former life are not again totally 
decomposed, or converted into their original elements, they supply 
more copious food to the succession of new animal or vegetable 
beings on their surface : which consists of materials convertible into 
nutriment with less labour or activity of the digestive powers ; and 
hence the quantity or number of organized bodies, and their im- 
provement in size, as well as their happiness, has been continually 



196 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

" He gives and guides the sun's attractive force, 
And steers the planets in their silver course ; 
With heat and light revives the golden day, 
And breathes his spirit on organic clay ; 460 

With hand unseen directs the general cause, 
By firm immutable immortal laws. w 

Charm'd with her words, the Muse astonished stands., 
The Nymphs, enraptured, clasp their velvet hands ; 
Applausive thunder from the fane recoils* 
And holy echoes peal along the ailes ; 



increasing, along with the ^lid parts of the globe; and will proba- 
bly continue to increase, till the whole terraqueous sphere, and all 
that inhabit it, shall dissolve by a gei^ral conflagration, and be again 
reduced to their elements. 

Thus all the suns, and the planets, which circle round them, may 
again sink into one central chaos; and may again by explosions, pro- 
duce a new world ; which in process of time may resemble the pre- 
sent one, and at length again undergo the s^me catastrophe! these 
great events may be the result of the immutable kws impressed on 



atter by the Great Cause of Causes, Parent of Parents, Ens Entium 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 197 

O'er Nature's shrine celestial lustres glow, 
And lambent glories circle round her brow. 

IV. Now sinks the golden sun, — the vesper song 
Demands the tribute of Urania's tongue ; 470 

Onward she steps, her fair associates calls 
From leaf- wove avenues, and vaulted halls. 
Fair virgin trains, in bright procession move, 
Trail their long robes, and whiten all the grove ; 
Pair after pair to Nature's temple sweep, 
Tread the broad arch, ascend the winding steep ; 
Through brazen gates, along susurrant ailes, 
Stream round their Goddess the successive files ; 
Curve above curve, to golden seats retire, 
And star with beauty the refulgent choir. 480 

And first to Heaven, the consecrated throng, 
With chant, alternate, pour the adoring song, 
Swell the full hymn, now high, and now profound, 
With sweet responsive symphony of sound. 

1 



198 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

Seen through their wiry harps, below, above, 
Nods the fair brow, the twinkling ringers move ; 
Soft warbling flutes the ruby lip commands, 
And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands. 

To Chaos next, the notes melodious pass, 
How suns, exploded from the kindling mass, 490 
WavM o'er the vast inane their tresses bright, 
And charm 3 d young Nature's opening eyes with light. 
Next, from each sun, how spheres reluctant burst, 
And second planets issued from the first. 
And then to Earth, descends the moral strain, 
How isles, emerging from the shoreless main, 
With sparkling streams, and fruitful groves, began, 
And form'd a Paradise for mortal man. 



To chaos next, 1. 489. 

Namque canebat utl magnum per inane coacta 
Semina terrarumque, animaeque, marisque fuissent ; 
Etliquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia prirnis 
Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis, 

Virg. Ec.VI. I. 31, 

I 



OF GOOD AND EVIL. 199 

Sublimer notes records Celestial Love, 
And high rewards in brighter climes above ; 500 

How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage 
Youth's raptur'd eye, and warm the frost of age, 
Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom, 
And light the dreary chambers of the tomb. 
How fell Remorse shall strike with venomM dart, 
Though maiPd in adamant, the guilty heart ; 
Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown 
The blood-stain' d tyrant from his tottering throne. 

By hands unseen are struck aerial wires, 
And Angel-tongues are heard amid the choirs ; ^10 
From aile to aile the trembling concord floats, 
And the wide roof returns the mingled notes, 
Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart, 
Pierce the charmed ear, and thrill the echoing heart. — 

Mute the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings, 
Now silence hovers on unmaving wings .-— 



500 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY- 

— Slow to the altar, fair Urania bends 

Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends, 

High in the midst, with blazing censer stands, 

And scatters incense with illuminM hands : 520 

Thrice to the Goddess bows, with solemn pause, 

With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws, 

And, meekly kneeling, on the gorgeous shrine, 

Lifts her ecstatic eyes to Truth Divine ! 524 

END OF CANTO IV. 



CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. 

Canto I. 

lAne. 

36 Origin of European Nations. 

76 Farly use of Painting and Hieroglyphics. 

83 Proteus represents Time. 

126 Cave of Trophonius. 

137 Eleusinian Mysteries. 

176 Antiquity of Statuary, casting Figures, and 

Carving. 

224 Infancy of the present World. 

235 Of Heat. 

239 Of Attraction. 

245 Of Contraction. 

259 Arteries not conical. 

262 Venous Absorption. 

268 Decrease of the Ocean. 

270 Sensation and Volition. 

283 Mucor, Vibrio. 

295 Animals are first Aquatic. 

315 Sea, originally was not Salt. 

327 Animals from the Sea. 

335 Aquatic Plants. 

343 Frogs. 

363 Rainbow in Northern Latitudes. 

372 Venus rising from the Sea. 

392 The Fetus in ihe Womb. 

417 Animals from the Mud of the Nile. 



Canto ii. 

1 Shortness of Life. 

3 Old Age surprising. 

39 Organic and chemical Properties. 

43 Immortality of Matter. 

47 Adonis emblem of Life. 

71 The Truffle, Lycoperdon. 

83 Volvox. 

85 Polypus. 



CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. 

Line. 

87 Taenia. 

89 Oysters. 

90 Coral-Insect. 

114 Female Sex produced. 

118 Power of Imagination. 

122 Mankind were formerly Hermaphrodites 

and Quadrupeds. 

167 Hereditary Diseases of Vegetables. 

223 Psyche and Cupid. 

268 Some honey poisonous. 

271 Appetency and Propensity. 

280 Vallisneria. 

288 Lampyris. 

302 Insects from Anthers and Stigmas. 

321 Horns of Stags, and Tusks of Boars, Spurs of 

Cocks. 

351 Chick in the Egg. 

356 Songs of Birds. 
373 How Fish swim. 
375 How Birds fly. 
434 Of Smiles, and of Laughter. 



Canto in. 

13 Oxygen, and Hydrogen, and Azote. 

21 Two electric Ethers. 

64 Irritation. 

72 Sensation. 

73 Volition, Memory. 
81 Intuitive Analogy. 
91 Association. 

103 Armour of Brutes. 

122 Of the human Hand. 

125 Perception of Figure. 

144 Sight the Language of the Touch. 

145 Surprise, Novelty, Curiosity. 
152 The Lips an Organ of Touch. 
176 Ideal Beauty. 

178 Two Deities of Love. 

207 Idea of Beauty from the Female Bosom. 

230 Taste for Sublimity. 



CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. 

Line. 

237 Poetic Melancholy. 

24d Taste for Trajedy. 

258 Taste for uncultivated Nature. 

270 Accumulation of sensorial Power. 

294 Imitation described. 

303 Imitation of one Sense by another. « 

319 M.mickry or Resemblance. 

334 The parts of the System imitate each other. 

342 External Signs of Passions. 

371 Theory of Language. 

398 Ideas so called are parts of a train of Actions. 

401 Of Reason. 

411 Reasoning of Insects. 

435 Volition distinguishes Mankind. 

456 If Knowledge produces Happiness. 

4L>6 Sympathy the source of Virtue. 

485 Maxim of Socrates. 



Canto iv. 

29 Oestrus or Gadfly. 

33 Ichneumon fly. 

37 Libellula. 

39 Bees. 

57 Shark. 

59 Crocodile. 

66 Animals prey on Vegetables. 

71 Defect of Stimulus. 

87 Theatric Preachers. 

93 Pleasure of Life, Ennui. 

94 Of Tooth-edge. 

119 Epidemic Complaints. 

130 Compassion may be too great. 

147 Doctrine of Atoms. 

160 Pleasure of viewing a Landscape. 

178 Pleasure from Music. 

242 Ancient Orators spoke disrespectfully of thf 

mechanic Philosophers. 

270 Influence of Printing. 

299 Associated Ideas of three Classes. 

309 Wit defined. 

349 Surprising number of Seeds. 



CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. 

Line. 

351 Of the Aphis, its Numbers. 

352 Aphis drinks the Sap-juice. 
359 The Mutation of the Tadpole. 

387 Animation near the Surface of the Earth. 

387 All dead animal and vegetable Bodies become 

v animated. 

403 Doctrine of St. Paul. 

411 Happiness increased. 

417 Doctrine of Pythagoras. 

431 Geology. 

450 M ethod of investigating of Organic Happiness. 

453 Organic Life increases. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

SPONTANEOUS VITALITY OF MICROSCOPIC ANIMALS. 

Hence without parent by spontaneous birth 
Rise the first specks of animated earth. 

Canto I. I. 227. 

Prejudices against this doctrine. 

I. From the misconception of the ignorant or superstiti- 
ous, it has been thought somewhat profane to speak in fa- 
vour of spontaneous vital production, as if it contradicted 
holy writ ; which says, that God created animals and vege- 
tables. They do not recollect that God created all things 
which exist, and that these have been from the beginning in 
a perpetual state of improvement ; which appears from the 
globe itself, as well as from the animals and vegetables, which 
possess it. And lastly, that there is more dignity in our idea 
of the supreme author of all things, when we conceive him 
to be the cause of causes, than the cause simply of the 
events, which we see ; if there can be any difference in in- 
finity of power ! 

Another prejudice which has prevailed against the spon- 
toneous production of vitality, seems to have arisen from 
the misrepresentation of this doctrine, as if the larger ani- 
mals had been thus produced ; as Ovid supposes after the 
deluge of Deucalion, that lions were seen rising out of the 
mud of the Nile, and struggling to disentangle their hinder 
parts. It was not considered, that animals and vegetables 
have been perpetually improving by reproduction ; and 
that spontaneous vitality was only to be looked for in the 
simplest organic beings, as in the smallest microscopic ani- 
malcules; which perpetually, perhaps hourly, enlarge them- 



4 Additional Notes. 

selves by reproduction, like the roots of tulips from seed, 
or the buds of seedling trees, which die annually, leaving 
others by solitary reproduction rather more perfect than 
themselves for many successive years, till at length they 
acquire sexual organs or flowers. 

A third prejudice against the existence of spontaneous 
vital productions has been the supposed want of analogy; 
this has also arisen from the expectation, that the larger or 
more complicated animals should be thus produced; which 
have acquired their present perfection by successive gene- 
rations during an uncounted series of ages. Add to this, 
that the want of analogy opposes the credibility of all new 
discoveries, as of the magnetic needle, and coated electric 
jar, and Galvanic pile : which should therefore certainly be 
well weighed and nicely investigated before distinct cre- 
dence is given them ; but then the want of analogy must 
at. length yield to repeated occular demonstration. 



Preliminary observations. 

IT. Concerning the spontaneous production of the smal- 
lest microscopic animals it should be first observed, that the 
power of reproduction distinguishes organic being, whether 
vegetable or animal, from inanimate nature. The circula- 
tion of fluids in vessels may exist in hydraulic machines, 
but the power of reproduction belongs alone to life. This 
reproduction of plants and of animals is of two kinds, 
which may be termed solitary and sexual. The former of 
these, as in the reproduction of the buds of trees, and of 
the bulbs of tulips, and of the polypus, and aphis, appears 
to be the first or most simple mode of generation, as many 
of these organic beings afterwards acquire sexual organs, as 
the flowers of seedling trees, and of seedling tulips, and the 
autumnal progeny of the aphis. See Phytologia. 

Secondly, it should be observed, that by reproduction or- 
ganic beings are gradually enlarged and improved ; which 



Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals* & 

may perhaps more rapidly and uniformly occur in the sim- 
plest modes of animated being ; but occasionally also in the 
more complicated and perfect kinds. Thus the buds of a 
seedling tree, or the bulbs of seedling tulips, become larger 
and stronger in the second year than the first, and thus im- 
prove till they acquire flowers or sexes : and the aphis, I 
believe, increases in bulk to the eighth or ninth generation, 
and then produces a sexual progeny. Hence the existence 
of spontaneous vitality is only to be expected to be found 
in the simplest modes of animation, as the complex ones 
have been formed by many successive reproductions. 



Experimental facts. 

III. By the experiments of BufFon, Reaumur, Ellis, In- 
genhouz, and others, microscopic animals are produced in 
three or four days according to the warmth of the season, 
in the infusions of all vegetable or animal matter. One or 
more of these gentlemen put some boiling veal broth into a 
phial previously heated in the fire, and sealing it up herme- 
tically or with melted wax, observed it to be replete with 
animalcules in three or four days. 

These microscopic animals are believed to possess a pow- 
er of generating others like themselves by solitary repro- 
duction without sex; and these gradually enlarging and 
improving for innumerable successive generations. Mr. Ellis, 
in Phil. Transact. V. LIX. gives drawings of six kinds of 
animalcula infusoria, which increase by dividing across the 
middle into two distinct animals. Thus in paste composed 
of flour and water, which has been suffered to become 
acescent, the animalcules called eels, vibrio anguillula, are 
seen in great abundance; their motions are rapid and 
strong; they are viviparous, and produce at intervals a nu- 
merous progeny : animals similar to these are also found in 
vinegar; Naturalist's Miscellany by Shaw and Nodder, 
Vol. II. These eels were probably at first as minute as 
other microscopic animalcules; but by frequent, perhaps 



6 Additional Notes. 

hourly reproduction, have gradually become the large ani- 
mals, above described, possessing wonderful strength and 
activity. 

To suppose the eggs of the former microscopic animals 
to float in the atmosphere, and pass through the sealed 
glass phial, is so contrary to apparent nature, as to be to- 
tally incredible ! and as the latter are viviparous, it is equal- 
ly absurd to suppose, that their parents float universally in 
the atmosphere to lay their young in paste or vinegar ! 

Not only microscopic animals appear to be produced by 
a spontaneous vital process, and then quickly improve by 
solitary generation like the buds of trees, or like the poly- 
pus and aphis, but there is one vegetable body, which ap- 
pears to be produced by a spontaneous vital process, and is 
believed to be propagated and enlarged in so short a time 
by solitary generation as to become visible to the naked 
eye; I mean the green matter first attended to by Dr. 
Priestley, and called by him conferva fontinalis. The proofs, 
that this material is a vegetable, are from its giving up so 
much oxygen, when exposed to the sunshine, as it grows in 
water, and from its green colour. 

Dr. Ingenhouz asserts, that by filling a bottle with well- 
water, and inverting it immediately into a basin of well- 
water, this green vegetable is formed in great quantity ; and 
he believes, that the water itself, or some substance con- 
tained in the water, is converted into this kind of vegetati- 
on, which then quickly propagates itself. 

M. Girtanner asserts, that this green vegetable matter is 
not produced by water and heat alone, but requires the 
sun's light for this purpose, as he observed by many experi- 
ments, and thinks it arises from decomposing water depriv- 
ed of a part of its oxygen, and laughs at Dr. Priestley for 
believing that the seeds of this conferva, and the parents of 
microscopic animals, exist universally in the atmosphere, 



Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals. 7 

and penetrate the sides of glass jars ; Philos. Magazine for 
May 1800. 

Besides this green vegetable matter of Dr. Priestley, there 
is another vegetable, the minute beginnings of the growth 
of which Mr. Ellis observed by his microscope near the sur- 
face of all putrifying vegetable or animal matter, which is 
the mucor or mouldiness ; the vegetation of which was 
amazingly quick so as to be almost seen, and soon became so 
large as to be visible to the naked eye. It is difficult to 
conceive how the seeds of this mucor can float so universal- 
ly in the atmosphere as to fix itself on all putrid matter in 
all places. 



Theory of Spontaneous Vitality. 

TV. In animal nutrition the organic matter of the bodies 
of dead animals, or vegetables, is taken into the stomach, 
and there suffers decompositions and new combinations by 
a chemical process. Some parts of it are however absorbed 
by the lacteals as fast as they are produced by this process 
of digestion; in which circumstance this process differs 
from common chemical operations. 

In vegetable nutrition the organic matter of dead ani- 
mals, or vegetables, undergoes chemical decompositions and 
new combinations on or beneath the surface of the earth ; 
and parts of it, as they are produced, are perpetually ab- 
sorbed by the roots of the plants in contact with it ; in 
which this also differs from common chemical processes. 

Hence the particles which are produced from dead orga- 
nic matter by chemical decompositions or new consequent 
combinations, are found proper for the purposes of the nu- 
trition of living vegetable and animal bodies, whether these 
decompositions and new combinations are performed in the 
stomach or beneath the soil. 



8 Additional Notes. 

For the purposes of nutrition these digested or decompos- 
ed recrements of dead animal or vegetable matter are ab- 
sorbed by the lacteals of the stomachs of animals or of the 
roots of vegetables, and carried into the circulation of their 
blood, and these compose new organic parts to replace others 
which are destroyed, or to increase the growth of the plant 
or animal. 

It is probable, that as in inanimate or chemical combina- 
tions, one of the composing materials must possess a power 
of attraction, and the other an aptitude to be attracted ; so 
in organic or animated compositions there must be particles 
with appetencies to unite, and other particles with propensi- 
ties to be united with them. 

Thus in the generation of the buds of trees, it is proba- 
ble that two kinds of vegetable matter, as they are separat- 
ed from the solid system, and float, in the circulation, be- 
come arrested by two kinds of vegetable glands, and are 
then deposed beneath the cuticle of the tree, and there join 
together forming a new vegetable, the caudex of which ex- 
tends from the plumula at the summit to the radicles be- 
neath the soil, and constitutes a single fibre of the bark. 

These particles appear to be of two kinds : one of them 
possessing an appetency to unite with the other, and the 
latter a propensity to be united with the former ; and they 
are probably separated from the vegetable blood by two 
kinds of glands, one representing those of the anthers, and 
the others those of the stigmas, in the sexual organs of ve- 
getables ; which is spoken of at large in Phytologia, Sect. 
VII. and in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXXIX. 8. of the 
third edition, in octavo ; where it is likewise shown, that 
none of these parts which are deposited beneath the cuticle 
of the tree, is in itself a complete vegetable embryon, but 
that they form one by their reciprocal conjunction. 

So in the sexual reproduction of animals, certain parts 
separated from the living organs and floating in the blood, 



Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals, 9 

are arrested by the sexual glands of the female, and others 
by those of the male. Of these none are complete embryon 
animals, but form an embryon by their reciprocal conjunc- 
tion. 

There hence appears to be an analogy between generation 
and nutrition, as one is the production of new organization, 
and the other the restoration of that which previously ex- 
isted ; and which may therefore be supposed to require ma- 
terials somewhat similar. Now the food taken up by ani- 
mal lacteals is previously prepared by the chemical process 
of digestion in the stomach ; but that which is taken up by 
vegetable lacteals, is prepared by chemical dissolution of 
organic matter beneath the surface of the earth. Thus the 
particles, which form generated animal embryons, are pre- 
pared from dead organic matter by the chemico-animal 
processes of sanguification and of secretion ; while those 
which form spontaneous microscopic animals or microscopic 
vegetables are prepared by chemical dissolutions and new 
combinations of organic matter in watery fluids with suffi- 
cient warmth. 

It may be here added, that the production and properties 
of some kinds of inanimate matter, are almost as difficult 
to comprehend as those of the simplest degrees of animati- 
on. Thus the elastic gum, or caoutchouc, and some fossile 
bitumens, when drawn out to a great length, contract them- 
selves by their elasticity, like an animal fibre by stimulus. 
The laws of action of these, and all other elastic bodies, 
are not yet understood : as the laws of the attraction of cohe- 
sion, to produce these effects, must be very different from 
those of general attraction, since the farther the particles of 
elastic bodies are drawn from each other till they separate, 
the stronger they seem to attract ; and the nearer they are 
pressed together, the more they seem to repel ; as in bend- 
ing a spring, or in extending a piece of elastic gum ; which 
is the reverse to what occurs in the attractions of disunited 
bodies ; and much wants further investigation. So the spon- 



10 Additional Notes. 

taneous production of alcohol or of vinegar, by the vinous 
and acetous fermentations, as well as the production of a 
mucus by putrefaction which will contract when extended, 
seems almost as difficult to understand as the spontaneous 
production of a fibre from decomposing animal or veget- 
able substances, which will contract when stimulated, and 
thus constitutes the primordium of life. 

Some of the microscopic animals are said to remain dead 
for many days or weeks, when the fluid in which they ex- 
isted is dried up, and quickly to recover life and motion by 
the fresh addition of water and warmth. Thus the chaos 
redivivum of Linnaeus dwells in vinegar and in bookbinders 
paste : it revives by water after having been dried for years, 
and is both oviparous and viviparous ; Syst. Nat. Thus the 
vorticella or wheel animal, which is found in rain water that 
has stood some days in leaden gutters, or in hollows of lead 
on the tops of houses, or in the slime or sediment left by 
such water, though it discovers no sign of life except when 
in the water, yet it is capable of continuing alive for many 
months though kept in a dry state. In this state it is of a 
globulous shape, exceeds not the bigness of a grain of sand, 
and no signs of life appear ; but being put into water, in 
the space of half an hour a languid motion begins, the glo- 
bule turns itself about, lengthens itself by slow degrees, as- 
sumes the form of a lively maggot, and most commonly in 
a few minutes afterwards puts out its wheels, swimming 
vigorously through the water as if in search of food ; or else, 
fixing itself by the tail, works the wheels in such a man- 
ner as to bring its food to its mouth ; English Encyclopedia, 
Art. Animalcule. 

Thus some shell-snails in the cabinets of the curious have 
been kept in a dry state for ten years or longer, and have 
revived on being moistened with warmish water; Philos. 
Transact. So eggs and seeds after many months torpor, are 
revived by warmth and moisture ; hence it may be con- 
cluded, that even the organic particles of dead animals may, 
when exposed to a due degree of warmth and moisture, 



Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals, 11 

regain some degree of vitality, since this is done by more 
complicate animal organs in the instances above mentioned. 

The hydra of Linnaeus, which dwells in the rivers of Eu- 
rope under aquatic plants, has been observed by the curi- 
ous of the present time, to revive after it has been dried, to 
be restored after being mutilated, to multiply by being di- 
vided, to be propagated from small portions, to live after 
being inverted ; all which would be best explained by the 
doctrine of spontaneous reproduction from organic particles 
not yet completely decomposed. 

To this should be added, that these microscopic animals 
are found in all solutions of vegetable or animal matter in 
water; as black pepper steeped in water, hay suffered to 
become putrid in water, and the water of dunghills, afford 
animalcules in astonishing numbers. See Mr. Ellis's curious 
account of Animalcules produced from an infusion of Pota- 
toes and Hempseed ; Philos. Transact. Vol. LIX. from all 
which it would appear, that organic particles of dead veget- 
ables and animals during their usual chemical changes into 
putridity or acidity, do not lose all their organization or vi- 
tality, but retain so much of it as to unite with the parts of 
living animals in the process of nutrition, or unite and pro- 
duce new complicate animals by secretion as in generation, 
or produce very simple microscopic animals or microscopic 
vegetables, by their new combinations in warmth and mois- 
ture. 

And finally, that these microscopic organic bodies are 
multiplied and enlarged by solitary reproduction, without 
sexual intercouse till they acquire greater perfection or new 
properties. Lewenhoek observed in rain-water which had 
stood a few days, the smallest scarcely visible microscopic 
animalcules, and in a few more days he observed others 
eight times as large ; English Encyclop. Art. Animalcule. 



12 Additional Notes. 



Conclusion. 

There is therefore no absurdity in believing that the most 
simple animals and vegetables may be produced by the con- 
gress of the parts of decomposing organic matter, without 
what can properly be termed generation, as the genus did 
not previously exist ; which accounts for the endless varie- 
ties, as well as for the immense numbers of microscopic 
animals. 

The green vegetable matter of Dr. Priestley, which is uni- 
versally produced in stagnant water, and the mucor, or 
mouldiness, which is seen on the surface of all putrid ve- 
getable and animal matter, have probably no parents, but 
a spontaneous origin from the congress of the decomposing 
organic particles, and afterwards propagate themselves. 
Some other fungi, as those growing in close wine-vaults, or 
others which arise from decaying trees, or rotten timber, 
may perhaps be owing to a similar spontaneous production, 
and not previously exist as perfect organic beings in the 
juices of the wood, as some have supposed. In the same 
manner it would seem, that the common esculent mush- 
room is produced from horse dung at any time and in any 
place, as is the common practice of many gardeners ; Ken- 
nedy on Gardening. 



Appendix. 

The knowledge of microscopic animals is still in its in- 
fancy ; those already known are arranged by Mr. Muller into 
the following classes; but it is probable, that many more 
classes, as well as innumerable individuals, may be disco- 
vered by improvements of the microscope, as Mr. Herchell 
has discovered so many thousand stars, which were before 
invisible, by improvements of the telescope. 



Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals. 13 

Mr. Muller's classes consist of 

I. Such as have no External Organs. 

1. Monas : Punctiformis. A mere point. 

2. Proteus: Mutabilis. Mutable. 

3. Volvox: Sphsericum. Spherical. 

4. Enchelis: Cylindracea. Cylindrical. 

5. Vibrio: Elongatum. Long. 

* Membranaceous. 

6. Cyclidium: Ovale. Oval. 

7. Paramecium: Oblongum. Oblong. 

8. Kolpoda: Sinuatum. Sinuous. 

9. Gonium : Angulatum. With angles. 
10. Bursaria. Hollow like a purse. 



II. Those that have External Organs. 

* Naked, or not enclosed in a shell. 
1. Cercaria : Caudatum. With a tail. 
9. Trichoda: Crinitum. Hairy. 

3. Kerona : Corniculatum. With horns. 

4. Himantopus: Cirratum. Cirrated. 

5. Leucophra : Ciliatum undique. Every part ciliated. 

6. Vorticella : Ciliatum apice. The apex ciliated. 

* Covered with a shell. 

7. Brachionus : Ciliatum apice. The apex ciliated. 

1. These animalcules are discovered in two or three days 
in all decompositions of organic matter, whether vegetable 
or animal, in moderate degrees of warmth with sufficient 
moisture. 



2. They appear to enlarge in a few days, and some to 
change their form ; which are probably converted from more 

c 



14 Additional Notes. 

simple into more complicate animalcules by repeated repro- 
ductions. See Note VIII. 

3. In their early state they seem to multiply by vivipa- 
rous solitary reproduction, either by external division, as 
the smaller ones, or by an internal progeny, as the eels in 
paste or vinegar ; and lastly, in their more mature state, the 
larger ones are said to appear to have sexual connexion. 
Engl. Encyclop. 

4. Those animalcules discovered in pustules of the itch, 
in the feces of dysenteric patients, and in semine mascu- 
lino, I suppose to be produced by the stagnation and inci- 
pient decomposition of those materials in their recepticles, 
and not to exist in the living blood or recent secretions ; as 
none, I believe, have been discovered in blood when first 
drawn from the arm, or in fluids newly secreted from the 
glands, which have not previously stagnated in their reser- 
voirs. 

5. They are observed to move in all directions with ease 
and rapidity, and to avoid obstacles, and not to interfere 
with each other in their motions. When the water is in 
part evaporated, they are seen to flock towards the remain- 
ing part, and show great agitation. They sustain a great 
degree of cold, as some insects, and perish in much the 
same degree of heat as destroys insects; all which evince 
that they are living animals. 

And it is probable, that other or similar animalcules may 
be produced in the air, or near the surface of the earth, but 
it is not so easy to view them as in water ; which as it is 
transparent, the creatures produced in it can easily be ob- 
served by applying a drop to a microscope. I hope that 
microscopic researches may again excite the attention of 
philosophers, as unforeseen advantages may probably be 
derived from them, like the discovery of a new world. 



E M 1 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. II. 

THE FACULTIES OF THE SENSORIUM. 



Next the long nerves unite their silver train, 
And young sensation permeates the brain. 

Cant. I. 1. 250. 

I. The fibres, which constitute the muscles and organs of 
sense, possess a power of contraction. The circumstances 
attending the exertion of this power of contraction consti- 
tute the laws of animal motion, as the circumstances at- 
tending the exertion of the power of attraction constitute 
the laws of motion of inanimate matter. 

II. The spirit of animation is the immediate cause of the 
contraction of animal fibres, it resides in the brain and 
nerves, and is liable to general or partial diminution or ac- 
cumulation. 

III. The stimulus of bodies external to the moving or- 
gan is the remote cause of the original contractions of ani- 
mal fibres. 

IV. A. certain quantity of stimulus produces irritation, 
which is an exertion of the spirit of animation exciting the 
fibres into contraction. 

V. A certain quantity of contraction of animal fibres, if 
it be perceived at all, produces pleasure ; a greater or less 
quantity of contraction, if it be perceived at all, produces 
pain ; these constitute sensation. 

VI. A certain quantity of sensation produces desire or 
aversion : these constitute volition. 



10 Additional Notes, 

VII. All animal motions which have occurred at the same 
time, or in immediate succession, become so connected, 
that when one of them is reproduced, the other has a ten- 
dency to accompany or succeed it. When fibrous contrac- 
tions succeed or accompany other fibrous contractions, the 
connexion is termed association ; when fibrous contractions 
succeed sensorial motions, the connexion is termed causa- 
tion ; when fibrous and sensorial motions reciprocally intro- 
duce each other, it is termed catenation of animal motions. 

VIII. These four faculties of the sensorium during their 
inactive state are termed irritability, sensibility, voluntarity, 
and associability ; in their active state they are termed as 
above irritation, sensation, volition, association. 

Irritation is an exertion or change of some extreme part 
of the sensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, 
in consequence of the appulses of external bodies. 

Sensation is an exertion or change of the central parts of 
the sensorium, or of the whole of it, beginning at some of 
those extreme parts of it, which reside in the muscles or 
organs of sense. 

Volition is an exertion or change of the central parts of 
the sensorium, or of the whole of it, terminating in some 
of those extreme parts of it, which reside in the muscles or 

organs of sense. 

Association is an exertion or change of some extreme part 
of the sensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, 
in consequence of some antecedent or attendant fibrous con- 
tractions ; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. 

The word sensorium is used to express not only the me- 
dullary part of the brain, spinal marrow, nerves, organs of 
sense and muscles, but also at the same time that living 
principle, or spirit of animation, which resides throughout 
the body, without being cognizable to our senses except by 
its effects. 




c 17 ] 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. III. 

Next when imprison'd fires in central caves 

Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves. 

Canto 1. 1. 302* 



The great and repeated explosions of volcanoes are shown 
by Mr. Mitchell in the Philosoph. Transact, to arise from 
their communication with the sea, or with rivers, or inun- 
dations ; and that after a chink or crack is made, the water 
rushing into an immense burning cavern, and falling on 
boiling lava, is instantly expanded into steam, and produ- 
ces irresistible explosions. 

As the first volcanic fires had no previous vent, and were 
probably more central, and larger in quantity, before they 
burst the crust of the earth then entire, and as the sea co- 
vered the whole, it must rapidly sink down into every open- 
ing chink; whence these primeval earthquakes were of 
much greater extent, and of much greater force, than those 
which occur in the present era. 

It should be added, that there may be other elastic va- 
pours produced by great heat from whatever will evapo- 
rate, as mercury, and even diamonds ; which may be more 
elastic, and consequently exert greater force than the steam 
of water even though heated red hot. Which may thence 
exert a sufficient power to raise islands and continents, and 
even to throw the moon from the earth. 

If the moon be supposed to have been thus thrown out of 
the great cavity which now contains the South Sea, the 
immense quantity of water flowing in from the primeval 
ocean, which then covered the earth, would much contri- 
bute to leave the continents and islands which might be 



18 Additional Notes, 

raised at the same time above the surface of the water. In later 
days there are accounts of large stones falling from the sky, 
which may have been thus thrown by explosion from some 
distant earthquake, without sufficient force to cause them 
to circulate round the earth, and thus produce numerous 
small moons or satellites. 

Mr. Mitchell observes, that the agitations of the earth 
from the great earthquake at Lisbon were felt in this coun- 
try about the same time after the shock, as sound would 
have taken in passing from Lisbon hither ; and thence as- 
cribes these agitations to the vibriations of the solid earth, 
and not to subterraneous caverns of communication ; Philos. 
Transact. But from the existence of warm springs at Bath 
and Buxton, there must certainly be unceasing subterrane- 
ous fires at some great depth beneath those parts of this 
island ; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto 
IV. 1. 79, note. For an account of the noxious vapours 
emitted from valcanoes, see Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Cant. 
IV. 1. 328, note. For the milder effects of central fires, 
see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Cant. 1. 1. 139, and Additional 
Note VI. 



( 19 ) 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. IV 



So from deep lakes the dread musquito springs, 
Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings. 

Canto I. 1. 327. 

The gnat, or musquito, culex pipiens. The larva of this 
insect lives chiefly in water, and the pupa moves with great 
agility. It is fished for by ducks ; and, when it becomes a 
fly, is the food of the young of partridges, quails, spar- 
rows, swallows, and other small birds. The females wound 
us, and leave a red point ; and in India their bite is more 
venomous. The male has its antennae and feelers feathered, 
and seldom bites or sucks blood ; Lin. Syst. Nat. 

It may be driven away by smoke, especially by that from 
inulahelenium, elecampane; and by that of cannabis, hemp. 
Kalm. It is said that a light in a chamber will prevent 
their attack on sleeping persons. 

The gnats of this country are produced in greater num- 
bers in some years than others, and are then seen in swarms 
for many evenings near the lakes or rivers whence they arise ; 
and, I suppose, emigrate to upland situations, where fewer 
of them are produced. About thirty years ago such a swarm 
was observed by Mr. Whitehurst for a day or two about 
the lofty tower of Derby church, as to give a suspicion of 
the fabric being on fire. 

Many other kinds of flies have their origin in the water, 
as perhaps the whole class of neuroptera. Thus the libel- 
lula, dragon fly : the larva of which hurries amid the wa- 
ter, and is the cruel crocodile of aquatic insects. After they 



20 Additional Notes. 

become flies, they prey principally on the class of insects 
termed lepidoptera, and diptera of Linneus. The epheme- 
ra is another of this order, which rises from the lakes in 
such quantities in some countries, that the rustics have car- 
ried cart-loads of them to manure their corn lands ; the lar- 
va swims in the water : in its fly-state the pleasures of life 
are of short duration, as its marriage, production of its pro- 
geny, and funeral, are often celebrated in one day. The 
phryganea is another fly of this order ; the larva lies con- 
cealed under the water in moveable cylindrical tubes of 
their own making. In the fly-state they institute evening 
dances in the air in swarms, and are fished for by the swal- 
lows. 

Many other flies, who do not leave their eggs in water, 
contrive to lay them in moist places, as the oestros bovis ; 
the larvae of which exist in the bodies of cattle, where 
they are nourished during the winter, and are occasionally 
extracted by a bird of the crow-kind called buphaga. These 
larvas are also found in the stomachs of horses, whom they 
sometimes destroy ; another species of them adhere to the 
anus of horses, and creep into the lowest bowel, and are 
called botts ; and another species, enters the frontal sinus 
of sheep, occasioning a vertigo called the turn. The musca 
pendula lives in stagnant water ; the larva is suspended by 
a thread-form respiratory tube ; of the musca chamaeleon, 
the larva lives in fountains, and the fly occasionally walks 
upon the water. The musca vomitoria is produced in car- 
cases ; three of these flies consume the dead body of a horse 
as soon as a lion. Lin. Syst. Nat. 



( 21 ) 



ADDITIONAL NOTE. V. 



AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. 

So still the Diodons, amphibious tribe, 
With twofold lungs the sea and air imbibe. 

Cant. I. I. 331* 

D. D. Garden dissected the amphibious creature call- 
ed diodon by Linneus, and was amazed to find that it pos- 
sessed both external gills and internal lungs, which he de- 
scribed and prepared and sent to Linneus ; who thence put 
this animal into the order nantes of his class amphibia. He 
adds also, in his account of polymorpha before the class 
amphibia, that some of this class breathe by lungs only, and 
others by both lungs and gills. 

Some amphibious quadrupeds, as the beaver, water rat, 
and otter, are said to have the foramen ovale of the heart 
open, which communicates from one cavity of it to the 
other ; and that, during their continuance under water, the 
blood can thus for a time circulate without passing through 
the lungs ; but as it cannot by these means acquire oxygen 
either from the air or water, these creatures find it frequent- 
ly necessary to rise to the surface to respire. As this fora- 
men ovale is always open in the foetus of quadrupeds, till 
after its birth that it begins to respire, it has been proposed 
by some to keep young puppies three or four times a day 
for a minute or two under warm water to prevent this com- 
munication from one cavity of the heart to the other from 
growing up ; whence it has been thought such dogs might 
become amphibious. It is also believed that this circum- 
stance has existed in some divers for pearl ; whose children 
are said to have been thus kept under w^ater in their early 



22 Additional Notes. 

infancy to enable them afterwards to succeed in their em- 
ployment. 

But the most frequent distinction of the amphibious ani- 
mals, that live much in the water, is, that their heart con- 
sists but of one cell; and as they are pale creatures with but 
little blood, and that colder and darker coloured, as frogs 
and lizards, they require less oxygen than the warmer ani- 
mals with a greater quantity and more scarlet blood ; and 
thence, though they have only lungs, they can stay long un- 
der water without great inconvenience ; but are all of them, 
like frogs, and crocodiles, and whales, necessitated frequent- 
ly to rise above the surface for air. 

In this circumstance of their possessing a one-celled heart, 
and colder and darker blood, they approach to the state of 
fish ; which thus appear not to acquire so much oxygen by 
their gills from the water as terrestrial animals do by their 
lungs from the atmosphere ; whence it may be concluded 
that the gills of fish do not decompose the water which 
passes through them, and which contains so much more oxy- 
gen than the air, but that they only procure a small quanti- 
ty of oxygen from the air which is diffused in the water ; 
which also is further confirmed by an experiment with the 
air-pump, as fish soon die when put in a glass of water into 
the exhausted receiver, which they would not do if their 
gills had power to decompose the water and obtain the 
oxygen from it. 

The lamprey, petromyzon, is put by Linneus amongst 
the nantes, which are defined to possess both gills and lungs. 
It has seven spiracula, or breathing holes, on each side of 
the neck, and by its more perfect lungs approaches to the 
serpent kind; Syst. Nat. The means by which it adheres 
to stones, even in rapid streams, is probably owing to a par- 
tial vacuum made by its respiring organs like sucking, and 
may be compared to the ingenious method by which boys 
are seen to lift large stones in the street, by applying to 
them a piece of strong moist leather with a string through 



Amphibious Animals. 93 

the centre of it; which, when it is forcibly drawn upwards, 
produces a partial vacuum under it, and thus the stone is 
supported by the pressure of the atmosphere. 

The leech, hirudo, and the remora, echeneis, adhere 
strongly to objects probably by a similar method. I once 
saw ten or twelve leeches adhere to each foot of an old horse 
a little above his hoofe, who was grazing in a morass, and 
which did not lose their hold when he moved about. The 
bare-legged travellers in Ceylon are said to be much infest- 
ed by leeches ; and the sea-leech, hirudo muricata, is said 
to adhere to lish, and the remora is said to adhere to ships in 
such numbers as to retard their progress. 

The respiratory organ of the whale, I suppose is pulmo- 
nary in part, as he is obliged to come frequently to the sur- 
face, whence he can be pursued after he is struck with the 
harpoon ; and may nevertheless be in part like the gills of 
other fish, as he seems to draw in water when he is below 
the surface, and emits it again when he rises above it. 



( 24 ) 



ADDITIONAL NOTE. VI. 

HIEROGLYPHIC CHARACTERS. 

So erst as. Egypt's rude designs explain. 

Canto I. 1. 351, 



The outlines of animal bodies, which gave names to the 
constellations, as well as the characters used in chemistry 
for the metals, and in astronomy for the planets, were ori- 
ginally hieroglyphic figures, used by the magi of Egypt be- 
fore the invention of letters, to record their discoveries in 
those sciences. 

Other hieroglyphic figures seem to have been designed to 
perpetuate the events of history, the discoveries in other arts, 
and the opinions of those ancient philosophers on other 
subjects. Thus their figures of Venus for beauty, Minerva 
for wisdom, Mars and Bellona for war, Hercules for strength, 
and many others, became afterwards the deities of Greece 
and Rome ; and together with the figures of Time, Death, 
and Fame, constitute the language of the^ painters to this 
day. 

From the similarity of the characters which designate the 
metals in chemistry, and the planets in astronomy, it may 
be concluded that these parts of science were then believed 
to be connected ; whence astrology seems to have been a 
very early superstition. These, so far, constitute an univer- 
sal visible language in those sciences. 



Hieroglyphic Characters. 25 

So the glory, or halo, round the head is a part of the uni- 
versal language of the eye, designating a holy person ; wings 
on the shoulders denote a good angel ; and a tail and hoof 
denote the figure of an evil demon ; to which may be added 
the cap of liberty and the tiara of popedom. It is to be 
wished that many other universal characters could be intro- 
duced into practice, which might either constitute a more 
comprehensive language for painters, or for other arts; as 
those of ciphers and signs have done for arithmetic and al- 
gebra, and crotchets for music and the alphabets for articu- 
late sounds; so a zigzag line made on white paper by a 
black-lead pencil, which communicates with the surface of 
the mercury in the barometer, as the paper itself is made 
constantly to move laterally by a clock, and daily to descend 
through the space necessary, has ingeniously produced a 
most accurate visible account of the rise and fall of the mer- 
cury in the barometer every hour in the year. 

Mr. Grey's Memoria Technica was designed as an artifi- 
cial language to remember numbers, as of the eras, or dates 
of history. This was done by substituting one consonant 
and one vowel for each figure of the ten cyphers used in 
arithmetic, and by composing words of these letters; which 
words Mr. Grey makes into hexameter verses, and produces 
an audible jargon, which is to be committed to memory, and 
occasionally analysed into numbers when required. An in- 
genious French botanist, Monsieur Bergeret, has proposed 
to apply this idea of Mr. Grey to a botanical nomenclature 
by making the name of each plant to consist of letters, 
which, when analysed, were to signify the number of the 
class, order, genus, and species, with a description also of 
some particular part of the plant, which was designed to 
be both an audible and visible language. 

Bishop Wilkins in his elaborate " Essay towards a Real 
Character and a Philosophical Language," has endeavoured 
to produce, with the greatest simplicity, and accuracy, and 
conciseness, an universal language both to be written and 
spoken, for the purpose of the communication of all our 



26 Additional Notes. 

ideas with greater exactness and less labour than is done in 
common languages, as they are now spoken and written. 
But we have to lament that the progress of general science 
is yet too limited both for his purpose, and for that even of 
a nomenclature for botany; and that the science of gram- 
mar, and even the number and manner of the pronunciation 
of the letters of the alphabet, are not yet determined with 
such accuracy as would be necessary to constitute Bishop 
Wilkins' grand design of an universal language, which 
might facilitate the acquirement of knowledge, and thus 
add to the power and happiness of mankind. 



( 27 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. VII. 

OLD AGE AND DEATH. 



The age-worn fibres goaded to contract 
By repetition palsied, cease to act. 

Canto II. 1, 



I. Effects of Age, 

The immediate cause of the infirmities of age, or of the 
progress of life to death, has not yet been well ascertained. 
The answer to the question, why animals become feeble and 
diseased after a time, though nourished with the same food 
which increased their growth from infancy, and afterwards 
supported them for many years in unimpaired health and 
strength, must be sought for from the laws of animal exci- 
tability, which though at first increased, is afterwards dimi- 
nished by frequent repetitions of its adapted stimulus, and 
at length ceases to obey it. 

1. There are four kinds of stimulus which induce the fi- 
bres to contract, which constitute the muscles or the organs 
of sense; as, first, The application of external bodies, which 
excites into action the sensorial power of irritation; 2dly, 
Pleasure and pain, which excite into action the sensorial 
power of sensation ; 3dly, Desire and aversion, which excite 
into action the power of volition ; and lastly, The fibrous 
contractions, which precede association, which is another 
sensorial power; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. II. 13. 

Many of the motions of the organic system, which are ne- 
cessary to life, are excited by more than one of these stimuli 



28 Additional Notes. 

at the same time, and some of them occasionally by them all. 
Thus respiration is generally caused by the stimulus of blood 
in the lungs, or by the sensation of the want of oxygen; 
but is also occasionally voluntary* The actions of the heart 
also, though generally owing to the stimulus of the blood, 
are also inflamed by the association of its motions with those 
of the stomach, whence sometimes arises an inequality of 
the pulse, and with other parts of the system, as with the 
capillaries, whence heat of the skin in fevers with a feeble 
pulse, see Zoonomia. They are also occasionally influenced 
by sensation, as is seen in the paleness occasioned by fear, 
or the blush of shame and anger ; and lastly the motions of 
the heart are sometimes assisted by volition ; thus in those 
who are much weakened by fevers, the pulse is liable to stop 
during their sleep, and to induce great distress; which is 
owing at that time to the total suspension of voluntary pow- 
er ; the same occurs during sleep in some asthmatic pati- 
ents. 

2. The debility of approaching age appears to be induced 
by the inactivity of many parts of the system, or their diso- 
bedience to their usual kinds and quantities of stimulus : 
thus the pallid appearance of the skin of old age is owing 
to the inactivity of the heart, which ceases to obey the irri- 
tation caused by the stimulus of the blood, or its association 
with other moving organs with its former energy; whence 
the capillary arteries are not sufficiently distended in their 
diastole, and consequently contract by their elasticity, so as 
to close the canal, and their sides gradually coalesce. Of 
these, those which are most distant from the heart, and of 
the smallest diameters, will soonest close, and become im- 
pervious ; hence the hard pulse of aged patients is occasi- 
oned by the coalescence of the sides of the vasa vasorum, or 
capillary arteries of the coats of the other arteries. 

The veins of elderly people become turgid or distended 
with blood, and stand prominent on the skin ; for as these do 
not possess the elasticity of the arteries, they become dis- 
tended with accumulation of blood ; when the heart by its 




Old Age and Death. $9 

lessened excitability does not contract sufficiently forcibly, 
or frequently, to receive as fast as usual, the returning 
blood ; and their apparent prominence on the skin is occa- 
sioned by the deficient secretion of fat or mucus in the cel- 
lular membrane ; and also to the contraction and coales- 
cence and consequent less bulk, of many capillary arteries. 

3. Not only the muscular fibres lose their degree of ex- 
citability from age, as in the above examples ; and as may be 
observed in the tremulous hands and feeble step of elderly 
persons ; but the organs of sense become less excitable by 
the stimulus of external objects; whence the sight and hear- 
ing become defective ; the stimulus of the sensorial power of 
sensation also less affects the aged, who grieve less for the loss 
of friends or for other disappointments ; it should nevertheless 
be observed that when the sensorial power of irritation is much 
exhausted, or its production much diminished; the sensorial 
power of sensation appears for a time to be increased ; as in 
intoxication there exists a kind of delirium and quick flow 
of ideas, and yet the person becomes so weak as to totter as 
he walks ; but this delirium is owing to the defect of vo- 
luntary power to correct the streams of ideas by intuitive 
analogy, as in dreams : see Zoonomia : and thus also those 
who are enfeebled by habits of much vinous potation, or 
even by age alone, are liable to weep at shaking hands with 
a friend, whom they have not lately seen ; which is owing 
to defect of voluntary power to correct their trains of ideas 
caused by sensation, and not to the increased quantity of 
sensation, as I formerly supposed. 

The same want of voluntary power to keep the trains of 
sensitive ideas consistent, and to compare them by intuitive 
anology with the order of nature, is the occasion of the 
starting at the clapping to of a door-, or the fall of a key, 
which occasions violent surprize with fear and sometimes 
convulsions, in very feeble hysterical patients, and is not 
owing I believe (as formerly supposed) to increased sensa- 
tion ; as they are less sensible to small stimuli than when 
in health, 

E 



SO Additional Notes, 

Old people are less able also to perform the voluntary 
exertions of exercise or of reasoning, and lastly the associ- 
ation of their ideas becomes more imperfect, as they are 
forgetful of the names of persons and places ; the associ- 
ations of which are loss permanent, than those of the other 
words of a language, which are more frequently repeated. 

4. This disobedience of the fibres of age to their .usual 
stimuli, has generally been ascribed to repetition or habit, 
as those who live near a large clock, or a mill, or a water- 
fall, soon cease to attend to the perpetual noise of it in the 
day, and sleep during the night undisturbed. Thus all me- 
dicines, if repeated too frequently, gradually lose their 
effect; as wine and opium cease to intoxicate: some disa- 
greeable tastes, as tobacco, by frequent repetition cease to 
be disagreeable ; grief and pain gradually diminish, and at 
length cease altogether ; and hence life itself becomes toler- 
able. 

This diminished power of contraction of the fibres of the 
muscles or organs of sense, which constitutes permanent 
debility or old age, may arise from a deficient secretion of 
sensorial power in the brain, as well as from the disobedi- 
ence of the muscles and organs of sense to their usual sti- 
muli ; but this less production of sensorial power must de- 
pend on the inactivity of the glands, which compose the 
brain, and are believed to separate it perpetually from the 
blood ; and is thence owing to a similar cause with the inac- 
tion of the fibres of the other parts of the system. 

It is finally easy to understand how the fibres may cease 
to act by the usual quantity of stimulus after having been 
previously exposed to a greater quantity of stimulus, or to 
one too long continued ; because the expenditure of senso- 
rial power has then been greater than its production ; but 
it is not easy to explain why the repetition of fibrous con- 
tractions, which during the meridian of life did not expend 
the sensorial power faster than it was produced; or only 
in such a degree as was. daily restored by rest and sleep,' 



Old Age and Death. 31 

should at length in the advance of life expend too much of 
it; or otherwise, that less of it should be produced in the 
brain; or reside in the nerves; lastly that the fibres should 
become less excitable by the usual quantity of it. 

5. But these facts would seem to show, that ail parts of 
the system are not changed as we advance in life, as some 
have supposed; as in that case it might have preserved for 
ever its excitability ; and it might then perhaps have been 
easier for nature to have continued her animals and veget- 
ables for ever in their mature state, chan perpetually by a 
complicate apparatus to have produced new ones, and suf- 
fer the old ones to perish ; for a further account of stimu- 
lus and the consequent animal exertion, see Zoonomia, 
Vol. L Sect. 12. 



II. Means of preventing old Age, 

The means of preventing the approach of age must there- 
fore consist in preventing the inexcitability of the fibres, or 
the diminution of the production of sensorial power. 

1. As animal motion- cannot be performed without the 
fluid matter of heat, in which all things are immersed, and. 
without a sufficient quantity of moisture to prevent rigi- 
dity : nothing seems so well adapted to both these purpose 
as the use of the warm bath ; and especially in those, who 
become thin or emaciated with age, and who have a hard 
and dry skin, with hardness of the coat of the arteries; which 
feels under the finger like a cord ; the patient should sit in 
warm water for half an hour every day, or alternate days, 
or twice a week ; the heat should be about ninety-eight de- 
grees on Farenheit's scale, or of such a warmth, as may be 
most agreeable to his sensation ; but on leaving the bath he 
should always be kept so cool, whether he goes into bed, or 
continues up, as not sensibly to perspire. 

There is a popular prejudice, that the warm bath relaxes 
people, and the cold bath braces them ; which are mechanic 



32 Additional Notes. 

cal terms belonging to drums and fiddle-strings, but not 
applicable except metaphorically to animal bodies, and then 
commonly mean weakness and strength : during the con- 
tinuance in the bath the patient does not lose weight, un- 
less he goes in after a full meal, but generally weighs hea- 
vier as the absorption is greater than the perspiration ; but 
if he suffers himself to sweat on his , leaving the bath, he 
will undoubtedly be weakened by the increased action of 
the system, and its exhaustion : the same occurs to those 
who are heated by exercise, or by wine, or spice, but not 
during their continuance in the warm bath : whence we 
may conclude, that the warm bath is the most harmless of 
all those stimuli, which are greater than our natural ha- 
bits have accustomed us to ; and that it particularly coun- 
teracts the approach of old age in emaciated people with 
dry skins. 

It may be here observed in favour of bathing, that some 
fish are believed to continue to a great age, and continually 
to enlarge in size, as they advance in life ; and that long af- 
ter their state of puberty. I have seen perch full of spawn, 
which were less than two inches long ; and it is known, that 
they will grow to six or eight times that size : it is said, that 
the whales, which have been caught of late years, are 
much less in size than those, which were caught, when first 
the whale-fishery was established ; as the large ones, which 
were supposed to have been some hundred years old, are 
believed to be already destroyed, 

All cold-blooded amphibious animals more slowly waste 
their sensorial power ; as they are accustomed to less sti- 
mulus from their respiring less oxygen ; and their move- 
ments in water are slower than those of aerial animals from 
the greater resistance of the element. There besides seems 
to be no obstacle to the growth of aquatic animals ; as by- 
means of the air-bladder, they can make their specific gra- 
vity the same as that of the water in which they swim. And 
the moisture of the element seems well adapted to countre- 
act the rigidity of their fibres ; and as their exertions m 



Old Age and Death. 33 

locomotion, and the pressure of some parts on others, are 
so much less than in the bodies of land animals. 

2. But as all excessive stimuli exhaust the sensorial 
power, and render the system less excitable for a time till 
the quantity of sensorial power is restored by sleep, or by 
the diminution or absence of stimulus ; which is seen by 
the weakness of inebriates for a day at least after intoxica- 
tion. And as the frequent repetition of this great and unna- 
tural stimulus of fermented liquors produces a permanent 
debility, or disobedience of the system to the usual and na- 
tural kinds and quantities of stimulus, as occurs in those 
who have long been addicted to the ingurgitation of fer- 
mented liquors. 

And as, secondly, the too great deficiency of the quan- 
tity of natural stimuli, as of food, and warmth, or of fresh 
air, produces also diseases ; as is often seen in the children 
of the poor in large towns, who become scrofulous from 
want of due nourishment, and from cold, damp, unairy 
lodgings. 

The great and principal means to prevent the approach 
of old age and death, must consist in the due management 
of the quantity of every kind of stimulus, but particularly 
of that from objects external to the moving organ; which 
may excite into action too great or too small a quantity of 
the sensorial power of irritation, which principally actuates 
the vital organs. Whence the use of much wine, or opium, 
or spice, or of much salt, by their unnatural stimulus indu- 
ces consequent debility, and shortens life, on the one hand, 
by the exhaustion of sensorial power ; so on the other hand, 
the want of heat, food, and fresh air, induces debility from 
defect of stimulus, and a consequent accumulation of senso- 
rial power, and a general debility of the system. Whence 
arise the pains of cold and hunger, and those which are 
called nervous; and which are the cause of hysteric, epilep~ 
tic, and perhaps of asthmatic paroxysms, and of the cold 
fits of fever. 



34 Additional Notes. 

3. Though all excesses of increase and decrease of sti- 
mulus should be avoided, yet a certain variation of stimu- 
lus seems to prolong the excitability of the system ; as dur- 
ing any diminution of the usual quantity of stimulus, an 
accumulation of sensorial power is produced ; and in con- 
sequence the excitability, which was lessened by the action 
of habitual stimulus, becomes restored. Thus those, who 
are uniformly habituated to much artificial heat, as in warm 
parlours in the winter months, lose their irritability in some 
degree, and become feeble like hot-house plants ; but by 
frequently going for a time into the cold air, the sensorial 
power of irritability is accumulated and they become stron- 
ger. 

Whence it may be deduced, that the variations of the 
cold and heat of this climate contribute to strengthen its 
inhabitants, who are more active and vigorous, and live 
longer, than those of either much warmer or much colder 
latitudes. 

This accumulation of sensorial power from diminution of 
stimulus any one may observe, who in severe weather may 
sit by the fire-side till he is chill and uneasy with the sensa- 
tion of cold ; but if he walks into the frosty air for a few 
minutes, an accumulation of sensorial power is produced 
by diminution of the stimulus of heat, and on his returning 
into the room where he was chill before, his whole skin will 
now glow with warmth. 

Hence it may be concluded, that the variations of the 
quantity of stimuli within certain limits contribute to our 
health : and that those houses which are kept too uniform- 
ly warm, are less wholesome than where the inhabitants are 
occasionally exposed to cold air in passing from one room 
to another. 

Nevertheless to those weak habits with pale skins and 
large pupils of the eyes, whose degree of irritability is less 
than health requires, as in scrofulous, hysterical, and some 



Old Age and Death. 35 

consumptive constitutions, a climate warmer than our own 
may be of service, as a greater stimulus of heat may be 
wanted to excite their less irritability. And also a more 
uniform quantity of heat may be serviceable to consump- 
tive patients than is met with in this country, as the lungs 
cannot be clothed like the external skin, and are therefore 
subject to greater extremes of heat and cold in passing in 
winter from a warm room into the frosty air. 

4. It should nevertheless be observed, that there is one 
kind of stimulus, which though it be employed in quantity 
beyond its usual state, seems to increase the production of 
sensorial power beyond the expenditure of it (unless its ex- 
cess is great indeed) and thence to give permanent strength 
and energy to the system ; I mean that of volition. This 
appears not only from the temporary strength of angry 
or insane people, but because insanity even cures some di- 
seases of debility, as I have seen in dropsy, and in some fe- 
vers ; but it is also observable, that many who have exerted 
much voluntary effort during their whole lives, have conti- 
nued active to great age. This however may be conceived 
to arise from these great exertions being performed princi- 
pally by the organs of sense, that is by exciting and com- 
paring ideas ; as in those who have invented sciences, or have 
governed nations, and which did not therefore exhaust the 
sensorial power of those organs which are necessary to life, 
but perhaps rather prevented them from being sooner impair- 
ed, their sonsorial power not having been so frequently ex- 
hausted by great activity, for very violent exercise of the 
body, long continued, forwards old age ; as is seen in post- 
horses that are cruelly treated, and in many of the poor, who 
with difficulty support their families by incessant labour. 



III. Theory of the Approach of Age. 

The critical reader is perhaps by this time became so far 
interested in this subject as to excuse a more prolix eluci- 
dation of it. 



36 Additional Notes. 

In early life the repetition of animal actions occasions 
them to be performed with greater facility, whether those 
repetitions are produced by volition, sensation, or irritation ; 
because they soon become associated together, if as much 
sensorial power is produced between every reiteration of 
action, as is expended by it. 

But if a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, 
the action, whether of our muscles or organs of sense, is 
performed with still greater facility and energy ; because 
the sensorial power of association mentioned above, is com- 
bined with the sensorial power of irritation, and forms part 
of the diurnal chain of animal motions ; that is, in common 
language, the acquired habit assists the power of the stimu- 
lus ; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. Q. and Sect. XII. 
3. 3. 

On this circumstance depends the easy motions of the fin- 
gers in performing music, and of the feet and arms in danc- 
ing and fencing, and of the hands in the use of tools in me- 
chanic arts, as well as all the vital motions which animate 
and nourish organic bodies. 

On the contrary, many animal motions by perpetual re- 
petition are performed with less energy : as those who live 
near a waterfall, or a smith's forge, after a time, cease to 
hear them. And in those infectious diseases which are at- 
tended with fever, as the small-pox and measles, violent 
motions of the system are excited, which at length cease, 
and cannot again be produced by application of the same 
stimulating material; as when those are innoculated for 
the small-pox, who have before undergone that malady. 
Hence the repetition, which occasions animal actions for a 
time to be performed with greater energy, occasions them 
at length to become feeble, or to cease entirely. 

To explain this difficult problem We must more minute- 
ly consider the catenations of animal motions, as described 
in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVII. The vital motions, as 



Old Age and Death, 37 

suppose of the heart and arterial system, commence from 
the irritation occasioned by the stimulus of the blood, and 
then have this irritation assisted by the power of association ; 
at the same time an agreeable sensation is produced by the 
due actions of the fibres, as in the secretions of the glands, 
which constitutes the pleasure of existence ; this agreeable 
sensation is intermixed between every link of this diurnal 
chain of actions, and contributes to produce it by what is 
termed animal causation. But there is also a degree of the 
power of volition excited in consequence of this vital plea- 
sure, which is also intermixed between the links of the chain 
of fibrous actions ; and thus also contributes to its uniform 
easy and perpetual production. 

The effects of surprise and novelty must now be consider- 
ed by the patient, reader, as they effect the catenations of 
action ; and, I hope, the curiosity of the subject will excuse 
the prolixity of this account of it. When any violent sti- 
mulus breaks the passing current or catenation of our ideas, 
surprise is produced, which is accompanied with pain or 
pleasure, and consequent volition to examine the object of 
it, as explained in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVIII. 17, and 
which never affects us in sleep. In our waking hours when- 
ever an idea of imagination occurs, which is incongruous to 
our former experience, we feel another kind of surprise, and 
instantly dissever the train of imagination by the power of 
volition, and compare the incongruous idea with our previ- 
ous knowledge of nature, and reject it by an act of reason- 
ing, of which we are unconscious, termed in Zoonomia, 
" Intuitive Analogy," Vol. I. Sect. XVII. 7. 

The novelty of any idea may be considered as affecting 
us with another kind of surprise, or incongruity, as it dif- 
fers from the usual train of our ideas, and forms a new link 
in this perpetual chain ; which, as it thus differs from the 
ordinary course of nature, we instantly examine by the vo- 
luntary efforts of intuitive analogy ; or by reasoning, which 
we attend to ; and compare it with the usual appearances 
of nature. f 



38 Additional Notes. 

These ideas which affect us with surprise, or incongrui- 
ty, or novelty, are attended with painful or pleasurable sen- 
sation ; which we mentioned before as intermixing with all 
catenations of animal actions, and contributing to strengthen 
their perpetual and energetic production ; and also exciting 
in some degree the power of volition, which also intermixes 
with the links of the chain of animal actions, and contri- 
butes to produce it. 

Now by frequent repetition the surprise, incongruity, or 
novelty ceases ; and, in consequence, the pleasure or pain 
which accompanied it, and also the degree of volition which 
was excited by that sensation of pain or pleasure ; and thus 
the sensorial power of sensation and of volition are subduct- 
ed from the catenation of vital actions, and they are in con- 
sequence produced much weaker, and at length cease en- 
tirely. Whence we learn why contagious matters induce 
their effects on the circulation but once ; and why, in pro- 
cess of time, the vital movements are performed with less, 
energy, and at length cease; whence the debilities of age, 
and consequent death. 



[ 39 ] 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. VIII. 
REPRODUCTION. 



But Reproduction with ethereal fires 
New life rekindles, ere the first expires. 

Canto II. 1. 13, 



I. The reproduction or generation of living organized 
bodies, is the great criterion or characteristic which distin- 
guishes animation from mechanism. Fluids may circulate 
in hydraulic machines, or simply move in them, as mer- 
cury in the barometer or thermometer, but the power of 
producing an embryon which shall gradually acquire simi- 
litude to its parent, distinguishes artificial from natural or- 
ganization. 

The reproduction of plants and animals appears to be of 
two kinds, solitary and sexual ; the former occurs in the for- 
mation of the buds of trees, and the bulbs of tulips ; which 
for several successions generate other buds, and other bulbs, 
nearly similar to the parent, but constantly approaching to 
greater perfection, so as finally to produce sexual organs, 
or flowers, and consequent seeds. 

The same occurs in some inferior kinds of animals ; as the 
aphises in the spring and summer are viviparous for eight or 
nine generations, which successively produce living de- 
scendants without sexual intercourse, and are themselves, 
I suppose, without sex ; at length in the autumn they pro- 
pagate males and females, which copulate and lay eggs, 
which lie dormant during the winter, and are hatched by 



40 Additional Notes. 

the vernal sun ; while the truffle, and perhaps mushrooms 
amongst vegetables, and the polypus and taenia amongst 
insects, perpetually propagate themselves by solitary repro- 
duction, and have not yet acquired male and female or- 
gans. 

Philosophers have thought these viviparous aphides, and 
the taenia, and volvox, to be females ; and have supposed 
them to have been impregnated long before their nativity 
within each other: so the taenia and volvox still continue to 
produce their offspring without sexual intercourse. One 
extremity of the taenia, is said by Linneus to grow old, 
whilst at the other end new ones are generated proceeding 
to infinity like the roots of grass. The volvox globator is 
transparent, and carries within itself children and grand- 
children to the fifth generation like the aphides ; so that the 
taenia produces children and grandchildren longitudinally 
in a chain-like series, and the volvox propagates an oil- 
spring included within itself to the fifth generation ; Syst. 
Nat. 

Many microscopic animals, and some larger ones, as the 
hydra or polypus, are propagated by splitting or dividing; 
and some still larger animals, as oysters, and perhaps eels, 
have not yet acquired sexual organs, but produce a paternal 
progeny, which requires no mother to supply it with a ni- 
dus, or with nutriment and oxygenation ; and, therefore, 
very accurately resemble the production of the buds of trees, 
and the wires of some herbaceous plants, as of knot-grass 
and of strawberries, and the bulbs of other plants, as of oni- 
ons and potatoes ; which is further treated of in Phytologia, 
Sect. VII. 

The manner in which I suspect the solitary reproduction 
of the buds of trees to be effected, may also be applied to the 
solitary generation of the insects mentioned above, and pro- 
bably of many others, perhaps of all the microscopic ones. 
It should be previously observed, that many insects are 
hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female organs of 



Reproduction. 41 

reproduction, as shell-snails and dew-worms ; but that these 
are seen reciprocally to copulate with each other, and are 
believed not to be able to impregnate themselves ; which 
belongs, therefore, to sexual generation, and not to the so- 
litary reproduction of which I am now speaking. 

As in the chemical production of any new combination 
of matter, two kinds of particles appear to be necessary ; 
one of which must possess the power of attraction, and the 
other the aptitude to be attracted, as a magnet and a piece 
of iron ; so in vegetable or animal combinations, whether 
for the purpose of nutrition or for reproduction, there must 
exist also two kinds of organic matter ; one possessing the 
appetency to unite, and the other the propensity to be uni- 
ted ; (see Zoonomia, octavo edition, Sect. XXXIX. 8.) Hence 
in the generation of the buds of trees, there are probably 
two kinds of glands, which acquire from the vegetable 
blood, and deposite beneath the cuticle of the tree two 
kinds of formative organic matter, which unite and form 
parts of the new vegetable embryon ; which again uniting 
with other such organizations form the caudex, or the plu- 
mula, or the radicle, of a new vegetable bud. 

A similar mode of reproduction by the secretion of two 
kinds of organic particles from the blood, and by depositing 
either internally as in the vernal or summer aphis or volvox, 
or externally as in the polypus and taenia, probably obtains 
in those animals ; which are thence propagated by the fa- 
ther only, not requiring a cradle, or nutriment, or oxygen- 
ation from a mother ; and that the five generations, said to 
be seen in the transparent volvox globator within each other, 
are perhaps the successive progeny to be delivered at differ- 
ent periods of time from the father, and erroneously suppo- 
sed to be mothers impregnated before their nativity. 

II. Sexual as well as solitary reproduction appears to be 
effected by two kinds of glands ; one of which collects or 
secretes from the blood formative organic particles with ap- 
petencies to unite, and the other formative organic particles 



42 Additional Notes. 

with propensities to be united. These probably undergo 
some change by a kind of digestion in their respective 
glands ; but could not otherwise unite previously in the 
mass of blood from its perpetual motion. 

The first mode of sexual reproduction seems to have been 
by the formation of males into hermaphrodites ; that is, 
when the numerous formative glands, which existed in the 
caudex of the bud of a tree, or on the surface of a polypus, 
became so united as to form but two glands ; which might 
then be called male and female organs. But they still col- 
lect and secrete their adapted particles from the same mass 
of blood as in snails and dew-worms, but do not seem to be 
so placed as to produce an embryon by the mixture of their 
secreted fluids, but to require the mutual assistance of two 
hermaphrodites for that purpose. 

From this view of the subject, it would appear that vege- 
tables and animals were at first propagated by solitary ge- 
neration, and afterwards by hermaphrodites sexual genera- 
tion ; because most vegetables possess at this day both male 
and female organs in the same flower, which Linneus has 
thence well called hermaphrodite flowers ; and that this 
hermaphrodite mode of reproduction still exists in many in- 
sects, as in snails and worms ; and, finally, because all the 
male quadrupeds, as well as men, possess at this day some 
remains of the female apparatus, as the breasts with nip- 
ples, which still at their nativity are said to be replete with 
a kind of milk, and the nipples swell on titillation. 

Afterwards the sexes seem to have been formed in vege- 
tables as in flowers, in addition to the power of solitary re- 
production by buds. So in animals the aphis is propagated 
both by solitary reproduction as in spring, or by sexual ge- 
neration as in autumn ; then the vegetable sexes began to 
exist in separate plants, as in the classes moncecia and dioe- 
cia, or both of them in the same plant also, as in the class 
polygamia ; but the larger and more perfect animals are now 
propagated by sexual reproduction only, which seems to 



Reproduction, 4$ 

have been the chief-d'ceuvre, or capital work of nature ; as 
appears by the wonderful transformations of leaf-eating cat- 
erpillars into honey-eating moths and butterflies, apparent- 
ly for the sole purpose of the formation of sexual organs, as 
in the silk-worm, which takes no food after its transforma- 
tion, but propagates its species and dies. 



III. Recapitulation. 

The microscopic productions of spontaneous vitality, and 
the next most inferior kinds of vegetables and animals, pro- 
pagate by solitary generation only ; as the buds and bulbs 
raised immediately from seeds, the lycoperdon tuber, with 
probably many other fungi, and the polypus, volvox, and 
taenia. Those of the next order propagate both by solitary 
and sexual reproduction, as those buds and bulbs which pro- 
duce flowers as well as other buds or bulbs ; and the aphis, 
and probably many other insects. Whence it appears, that 
many of those vegetables and animals, which are produced 
by solitary generation, gradually become more perfect, and 
at length produce a sexual progeny. 

A third order of organic nature consists of hermaphro- 
dite vegetables and animals, as in those flowers which have 
anthers and stigmas in the same corol ; and in many insects, 
as leeches, snails, and worms ; and perhaps all those rep- 
tiles which have no bones, according to the observation of 
M. Poupart, who thinks, that the number of hermaphro- 
dite animals exceeds that of those which are divided into 
sexes ; Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences. These hermaphro- 
dite insects I suspect to be incapable of impregnating them- 
selves for reasons mentioned in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 
§. 2. 

And, lastly, the most perfect orders of animals are pro- 
pagated by sexual intercourse only ; which, however, does 
not extend to vegetables, as all those raised from seed pro- 
duce some generations of buds or bulbs, previous to their 



44 Additional Notes. 

producing flowers, as occurs not only in trees, but also in 
the annual plants. Thus three or four joints of wheat grow 
upon each other, before that which produces a flower ; which 
joints are all separate plants growing over each other, like 
the buds of trees, previous to the uppermost ; though this 
happens in a few months in annual plants, which requires 
as many years in the successive buds of trees ; as is further 
explained in Phytologia, Sect. IX. 3. 1. 



IV. Conclusion. 

Where climate is favourable, and salubrious food plentiful 
there is reason to believe, that the races of animals perpe- 
tually improve by reproduction. The smallest microscopic 
animals become larger ones in a short time, probably by suc- 
cessive reproductions, as is so distinctly seen in the buds of 
seedling apple-trees, and in the bulbs of tulips raised from 
seed ; both which die annually, and leave behind them one 
or many, which are more perfect than themselves, till they 
produce a sexual progeny, or flowers. To which may be 
added, the rapid improvement of our domesticated dogs, 
horses, rabbits, pigeons, which improve in size, or in swift- 
ness, or in the sagacity of the sense of smell, or in colour, 
or other properties, by sexual reproduction. 

The great Linneus having perceived the changes produ- 
ced in the vegetable world by sexual reproduction, has sup- 
posed that not more than about sixty plants were at first 
created, and that all the others have been formed by their 
solitary or sexual reproductions; and adds, Suadent hsec 
Creatoris leges a simplicibus ad composita ; Gen. Plant, pre- 
face to the. natural orders, and Amenit. Acad. VI. 279. 
This mode of reasoning may be extended to the most sim- 
ple productions of spontaneous vitality. 

There is one curious circumstance of animal life analo- 
gous in some degree to this wonderful power of reproduc- 
tion ; which is seen in the propagation of some contagious 



Reproduction. 45 

diseases. Thus one grain of variolous matter, inserted by 
inoculation, shall in about seven days stimulate the system 
into unnatural action ; which in about seven days more pro- 
duces ten thousand times the quantity of a similar material 
thrown out on the skin in pustules ! 

The mystery of reproduction, which alone distinguishes 
organic life from mechanic or chemic action, is yet wrapt 
in darkness. During the decomposition of organic bodies, 
where there exists a due degree of warmth with moisture, 
new microscopic animals of the most minute kind are pro- 
duced ; and these possess the wonderful power of reproduc- 
tion, or of producing animals similar to themselves in their 
general structure, but with frequent additional improve- 
ments ; which the preceding parent might in some measure 
have acquired by his habits of life or accidental situation. 

But it may appear too bold in the present state of our 
knowledge on this subject, to suppose that all vegetables 
and animals now existing were originally derived from the 
smallest microscopic ones, formed by spontaneous vitality ? 
and that they have by innumerable reproductions, during 
innumerable centuries of time, gradually acquired the size, 
strength, and excellence of form and faculties, which they 
now possess ? and that such amazing powers were originally 
impressed on matter and spirit by the great Parent of pa- 
rents ! Cause of Causes ! Ens Entium ! 



( 46 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. IX. 

STROGE. 

And Heaven-born Storge weaves the social chain. 

Canto II. I. 92. 

The Greek word Storge is used for the affection of pa- 
rents to children ; which was also visibly represented by 
the Stork or Pelican feeding her young with blood taken 
from her own wounded bosom. A number of Pelicans 
form a semicircle in shallow parts of the sea near the coast, 
standing on their long legs; and thus including a shoal of small 
fish, they gradually approach the shore ; and seizing the fish 
as they advance, receive them into a pouch under their 
throats ; and bringing them to land regurgitate them for 
the use of their young, or for their future support. Adan- 
son, Voyage to Senegal. In this country the parent Pi- 
geons both male and female swallow the grain or other 
seeds, which they collect for their young, and bring it up 
mixed with a kind of milk from their stomachs, with their 
bills inserted into the mouths of the young doves. J. Hun- 
ter's works. 

The affection of the parent to the young in experienced 
mothers may be in part owing to their having been relieved 
by them from the burden of their milk ; but it is difficult 
to understand, how this affection commences in those mo- 
thers of the bestial world, who have not experienced this 
relief from the sucking of their offspring; and still more 
so to understand how female birds were at first induced to 
incubate their eggs for many weeks ; and lastly how cater- 
pillars, as of the silk-worm, are induced to cover themselves 
with a well-woven house of siik before their transformation* 



Storge. 47 

These as well as many other animal facts, which are dif- 
ficult to account for, have been referred to an inexplicable 
instinct ; which is supposed to preclude any further inves- 
tigation : but as animals seem to have undergone great 
changes, as well as the inanimate parts of the earth, and are 
probably still in a state of gradual improvement ; it is not 
unreasonable to conclude, that some of these actions both 
of large animals and of insects, may have been acquired in 
a state preceding their present one ; and have been derived 
from the parents to their offspring by imitation, or other 
kind of tradition; thus the eggs of the crocodile are at this 
day hatched by the warmth of the sun in Egypt ; and the 
eggs of innumerable insects, and the spawn of fish, and of 
frogs, in this climate are hatched by the vernal warmth : 
this might be the case of birds in warm climates, in their 
early state of existence; and experience might have taught 
them to incubate their eggs, as they became more perfect 
animals, or removed themselves into colder climates ; thus 
the ostrich is said to sit upon its eggs only in the night in 
warm situations, and both day and night in colder ones. 

This love of the mother in quadrupeds to the offspring, 
whom she licks and cleans, is so allied to the pleasure of 
the taste or palate, that nature seems to have had a great 
escape in the parent quadruped not devouring her offspring. 
Bitches, and cats, and sows, eat the placenta ; and if a dead 
offspring occurs, I am told, that also is sometimes eaten, 
and yet the living offspring is spared ; and by that nice dis- 
tinction the progenies of those animals are saved from des- 
truction ! 

" Certior factus sum a viro rebus antiquissimis docto, 
" quod legitur in Berosi operibus homines ante diluvium 
" mulierum puerperarum placentam edidisse quasi cibum 
H delicatum in epulis luxuriosis ; et quod hoc nefanclis- 
" simo crimine movebatur Deus diluvio submergere ter- 
" rarum incolas." Anon. 

It may be finally concluded, that this affection from the 
parent to the progeny existed before animals were divided 



48 Additional Notes. 

into sexes, and produced the beginning of sympathetic so- 
ciety, the source of which may perhaps be thus well ac- 
counted for ; whenever the glandular system is stimulated 
into greater natural action within certain limits, an addition 
of pleasure is produced along with the increased secretion i 
this pleasure arising from the activity of the system is sup- 
posed to constitute the happiness of existence, in contradis- 
tinction to the ennui or taedium vitae ; as shown in Zoono- 
mia, Sect. XXXIII. 1. 

Hence the secretion of nutritious juices occasioned by 
the stimulus of an embryon or egg in the womb gives plea- 
sure to the parent for a length of time; whence by associa- 
tion a similar pleasure may be occasioned to the parent by 
seeing and touching the egg or fetus after its birth ; and 
in lactescent animals an additional pleasure is produced by 
the new secretion of milk, as well as by its emission into 
the sucking lips of the infant. This appears to be one of 
the great secrets of Nature, one of those fine, almost invisi- 
ble cords, which have bound one animal to another. 

The females of lactiferous animals have thus a passion or 
inlet of pleasure in their systems more than the males, from 
their power, of giving suck to their offspring ; the want of 
the object of this passion, either owing to the death of the 
progeny, or to the unnatural fashion of their situation in 
life, not only deprives them of this innocent and virtuous 
source of pleasure ; but has occasioned diseases, which have 
been fatal to many of them. 



( 49 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. X. 

EVE FROM ADAM'S RIB. 

Form'd a new sex, the mother of mankind. 

Canto. II. 1. 140. 

The mosaic history of Paradise and of Adam and Eve 
has been thought by some to be a sacred allegory, designed 
to teach obedience to divine commands, and to account for 
the origin of evil, like Jotham's fable of the trees ; Judges 
ix. 8. or Nathan's fable of the poor man and his lamb ; 2 
Sam. xii. 1. or like the parables in the New Testament; as 
otherwise knowledge could not be said to grow upon one 
tree, and life upon another, or a serpent to converse ; and 
lastly that this account originated with the magi or philo- 
sophers of Egypt, with whom Moses was educated, and 
that this part of the history, where Eve is said to have been 
made from a rib of Adam might have been an hierogly- 
phic design of the Egyptian philosophers, showing their 
opinion that Mankind was originally of both sexes united, 
and was afterwards divided into males, and females : an 
opinion in later times held by Plato, and I believe by Aris- 
totle, and which must have arisen from profound inquiries 
into the original state of animal existence. 



( 50 ) 



ADDITIONAL NOTE. XL 



HEREDITARY DISEASES. 



The feeble births acquired diseases chase, 
Till Death extinguish the degenerate race. 

Canto II. 1. 165, 



As all the families both of plants and animals appear in 
a state of perpetual improvement or degeneracy, it becomes 
a subject of importance to detect the causes of these muta- 
tions. 

The insects, which are not propagated by sexual inter- 
course, are so few or so small, that no observations have 
been made on their diseases ; but hereditary diseases are be- 
lieved more to affect the offspring of solitary than of sexual 
generation in respect to vegetables; as those fruit trees, 
which have for more than a century been propagated only 
by ingrafting, and not from seeds, have been observed by 
Mr. Knight to be at this time so liable to canker, as not to 
be worth cultivation. From the same cause I suspect the 
degeneracy of some potatoes and of some strawberries to 
have arisen ; where the curled leaf has appeared in the for- 
mer, and barren flowers in the latter. 

This may arise from the progeny by solitary reproduc- 
tion so much more exactly resembling the parent, as is well 
seen in grafted trees compared with seedling ones; the fruit 
of the former always resembling that of the parent tree, but 
not so of the latter. The grafted scion also accords with 
the branch of the tree from whence it was taken, in the 
time of its bearing fruit ; for if a scion be taken from a bear- 



Hereditary Diseases. 51 

ing branch of a pear or apple tree, I believe, it will produce 
fruit even the next year, or that succeeding ; that is, in the 
same time that it would have produced fruit, if it had con- 
tinued growing on the parent tree ; but if the parent pear 
or apple tree has been cut down or headed, and scions are 
then taken from the young shoots of the stem, and in- 
grafted ; I believe those grafted trees will continue to grow 
for ten or twelve years, before they bear fruit, almost as 
long as seedling trees, that is they will require as much time, 
as those new shoots from the lopped trunk would require, 
before they produce fruit. It should thence be inquired, 
when grafted fruit trees are purchased^ whether the scions 
were taken from bearing branches, or from the young shoots 
of a lopped trunk ; as the latter, I believe, are generally 
sold, as they appear stronger plants. This greater simili- 
tude of the progeny to the parent in solitary reproduction 
must certainly make them more liable to hereditary dis- 
eases, if such have been acquired by the parent from un~ 
friendly climate or bad nourishment, or accidental injury. 

In respect to the sexual progeny of vegetables it has long 
been thought, that a change of seed or of situation is in pro- 
cess of time necessary to prevent their degeneracy ; but it 
is now believed, that it is only changing for seed of a supe- 
rior quality, that will better the product. At the same time 
it may be probably useful occasionally to intermix seeds 
from different situations together; as the anther-dust is lia- 
ble to pass from one plant to another in its vicinity ; and by 
these means the new seeds or plants may be amended, like 
the marriages of animals into different families. 

As the sexual progeny of vegetables are thus less liable to 
hereditary diseases than the solitary progenies ; so it is rea- 
sonable to conclude, that the sexual progenies of animals 
may be less liable to hereditary diseases, if the marriages are 
into different families, than if into the same family ; this 
has long been supposed to be true, by those who breed ani- 
mals for sale; since if the male and female be of different 
temperaments, as these are extremes of the animal system, 
they may counteract each other ; and certainly where both 



52 Additional Notes. 

parents are of families which are afflicted with the same 
hereditary disease, it is more likely to descend to their pos- 
terity. 

The hereditary diseases of this country have many of them 
been the consequence of drinking much fermented or spi- 
rituous liquor ; as the gout always, most kinds of dropsy, 
and, I believe, epilepsy, and insanity. But another mate- 
rial, which is liable to produce diseases in its immoderate 
use, I believe to be common salt ; the sea-scurvy is evi- 
dently caused by it in long voyages ; and I suspect the 
scrofula, and consumption, to arise in the young progeny 
from the debility of the lymphatic and venous absorption 
produced in the parent by this innutritious fossile stimulus. 
The petechia? and vibices in the sea-scurvy and occasional 
haemorrhages evince the defect of venous absorption ; the 
occasional hamnoptoe at the commencement of pulmonary 
consumption, seems also to arise from the defect of venous 
absorption ; and the scrofula, which arises from the inac- 
tivity of the lymphatic absorbent system, frequently exists 
along with pulmonary as well as with mesenteric Consump- 
tion. A tendency to these diseases is certainly hereditary, 
though perhaps not the diseases themselves ; thus a less 
quantity of ale, cyder, wine, or spirit, will induce the gout 
and dropsy in those constitutions, whose parents have been 
intemperate in the use of those liquors ; as I have more 
than once had occasion to observe. 

Finally the art to improve the sexual progeny of either 
vegetables or animals must consist in choosing the most 
perfect of both sexes, that is the most beautiful in respect 
to the body, and the most ingenious in respect to the mind ; 
but where one sex is given, whether male or female, to im- 
prove a progeny from that person may consist in choosing 
a partner of a contrary temperament. 

As many families become gradually extinct by heredita- 
ry diseases, as by scrofula, consumption, epilepsy, mania, 
it is often hazardous to marry an heiress, as she is not un- 
frequently the last of a diseased family. 



( 53 ) 



ADDITIONAL NOTE. XII 



CHEMICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY AND 
MAGNETISM. 



Then mark how two electric streams conspire 
To form the resinous and vitreous fire. 

Canto III. 1. 2; 



I. Of Attraction and Repulsion. 

The motions, which accomplish the combinations and 
decompositions of bodies, depend on the peculiar attrac- 
tions and repulsions of the particles of those bodies, or of 
the sides and angles of them ; while the motions of tRe sun 
and planets, of the air and ocean, and of alHx>dies ap- 
proaching to a general centre or retreating from it, depend 
on the general attraction or repulsion of those masses of 
matter. The peculiar attractions above mentioned are 
termed chemical affinities, and the general attraction is 
termed gravitation ; but the peculiar repulsions of the par- 
ticles of bodies, or the general repulsion of the masses of 
matter, have obtained no specific names, nor have been suf- 
ficiently considered ; though they appear to be as powerful 
agents as the attractions. 



The motions of ethereal fluids, as of magnetism and elec- 
tricity, are yet imperfectly understood, and seem to depend 
both on chemical affinity, and on gravitation ; and also on 
the peculiar repulsions of the particles of bodies, and on 
the general repulsion of the masses of matter. 

H 



34 Additional Notes. 

In what manner attraction and repulsWn are produced 
has not yet been attempted to be explained by modern phi- 
losophers ; but as nothing can act, where it does not exist, 
all distant attraction of the particles of bodies, as well as 
general gravitation, must be ascribed to some still finer 
ethereal fluid; which fills up all space between the suns 
and their planets, as well as the interstices of coherent mat- 
ter. Repulsion in the same manner must consist of some 
finer ethereal fluid ; which at first projected the planets 
from the sun, and I suppose prevents their return to it ; 
and which occasionally volatilizes or decomposes solid bo- 
dies into fluid or aerial ones, and perhaps into ethereal 
ones. 

May not the ethereal matter which constitutes repulsion, 
be the same as the matter of heat in its diffused state; which 
in its quiescent state is combined with various bodies, as ap- 
pears from many chemical explosions, in which so much 
heat is set at liberty ? The ethereal matter, which consti- 
tutes attraction, we are less acquainted with ; but it may 
also exist combined with bodies, as well as in its diffused 
state; since the specific gravities of some metallic mixture* 
are said not to accord with what ought to result from the 
combination of their specific gravities, which existed be- 
fore their mixture ; but their absolute gravities have not been 
attended to sufficiently ; as these have always been sup- 
posed to depend on their quantity of matter, and situation 
in respect to the centre of the earth. 

The ethereal fluids, which constitute peculiar repulsions: 
and attractions, appear to gravitate round the particles of 
bodies mixed together ; as those, which constitute the gene- 
ral repulsion or attraction, appear to gravitate round the 
greater masses of matter mixed together; but that which 
constitutes attraction seems to exist in a denser state next to 
the particles or masses of matter ; and that which consti- 
tutes repulsion to exist more powerfully in a sphere further 
from them; whence many bodies attract at one distance, 
and repel at another. This may be observed by approach- 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 55 

ing to each other two electric atmospheres round insulated 
cork-balls ; or by pressing globules of mercury, which roll 
on the surface, till they unite with it; or by pressing the 
drops of water, which stand on a cabbage leaf, till they 
unite with it, and hence light is reflected from the surface 
of a mirror without touching it. 

Thus the peculiar attractions and repulsions of the parti- 
cles of bodies, and the general ones of the masses of mat- 
ter, perpetually oppose and counteract each other ; whence 
if the power of attraction should cease to act, all matter 
would be dissipated by the power of repulsion into bound- 
less space ; and if heat, or the power of repulsion should 
cease to act, the whole world would become one solid mass, 
condensed into a point 



II. Preliminary Propositions. 

The following propositions concerning Electricity and 
Galvanism will either be proved by direct experiments, or 
will be rendered probable by their tending to explain or 
connect the variety of electric facts, to which they will be 
applied. 

1. There are two kinds of electric ether, which exist ei- 
ther separately or in combination. That which is accumu- 
lated on the surface of smooth glass, when it is rubbed with 
a cushion, is here termed vitreous ether ; and that which is 
accumulated on the surface of resin or sealing-wax, when it 
is rubbed with a cushion, is here termed resinous ether; and 
a combination of them, as in their usual state, may be termed 
neutral electric ethers. 

2. Atmospheres of vitreous or of resinous or of neutral 
electricity surround all separate bodies, are attracted by 
them, and permeate those, which are called conductors, as 
metallic and aqueous and carbonic ones ; but will not per- 



66 Additional Notes. 

meate those, which are termed nonconductors, as air, glass, 

silk, resin, sulphur. 

3. The particles of vitreous electric ether strongly repel 
each other as they surround other bodies ; but strongly at- 
tract the particles of resinous electric ether : in similar man- 
ner the particles of the resinous ether powerfully repel each 
other, and as powerfully attract those of the vitreous ether. 
Hence in their separate state they appear to occupy much 
greater space, as they gravitate round insulated bodies, and 
are then only cognizable by our senses or experiments. They 
rush violently together through conducting substances, and 
then probably possess much less space in this their combined 
state. They thus resemble oxygen gas and nitrous gas ; 
which rush violently together when in contact 1 ; and occupy 
less space when united, than either of them possessed sepa- 
rately before their union. When the two electric ethers 
thus unite, a chemical explosion occurs, like an ignited 
train of gun-powder ; as they give out light and heat ; and 
rend or fuse the bodies they occupy ; which cannot be ac- 
counted for on the mechanical theory of Dr. Franklin. 

4. Glass holds within it in combination much resinous 
electric ether, which constitutes a part of it, and which 
more forcibly attracts vitreous electric ether from surround- 
ing bodies, which stands on it mixed with a less proportion 
of resinous ether like an atmosphere, but cannot unite with 
the resinous ether, which is combined with the glass ; and 
resin, on the contrary, holds within it in combination much 
vitreous electric ether, which constitutes a part of it, and 
which more forcibly attracts resinous electric ether from sur- 
rounding bodies, which stands on it mixed with a less pro- 
portion of vitreous ether like an atmosphere, but cannot 
unite with the vitreous ether, which is combined with the 
resin. 

As in the production of vitrificacion, those materials are 
necessary which contain much oxygen, as minium, and man- 
ganese; there is probably much oxygen combined with 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Ma'netist. 57 
glass, which may thence be esteemed a solic acid, as water 
may be esteemed a fluid one. It is hence not mprobible, that 
one kind of electric ether may also be combhed witi it, as it 
seems to affect the oxygen of water in the Galvanic experi- 
ments. The combination of the other kind «f electric ether 
with wax or sulphur, is countenanced fron those bodies, 
when heated or melted, being said to part vith mu?h elec- 
tricity as they cool, and as it appears to aftet the hydrogen 
in the decomposition of water by Galvanisn. 

5. Hence the nonconductors of electicity are of two 
Hinds ; such as are combined with vitreois ether, as resin, 
and sulphur ; and such as are combined wih resinous ether, 
as glass, air, silk. But both these kinds »f nonconductors- 
are impervious to either of the electric ethers ; as those 
ethers being already combined with othei bodies, will not 
unite with each other, or be removed fron their situations 
by each other. Whereas the perfect conducting bodies, as 
metals, water, charcoal, though surrounced with electric 
atmospheres, as they have neither of the electric ethers 
combined with them, suffer them to pemeate and pass 
through them, whether separately or in their neutral state 
of reciprocal combination. 

But it is probable, that imperfect conductors may pos- 
sess more or less of either the vitreous or resinous ether 
combined with them, since their natural atmospheres are 
dissimilar as mentioned below ; and that this makes them 
more or less imperfect conductors. 

6. Those bodies which are perfect conductors, have pro- 
bably neutral electric atmospheres gravitating round them 
consisting of an equal or saturated mixture of the two elec- 
tric ethers, whereas the atmospheres round the nonconduct- 
ing bodies probably consist of an unequal mixture of the 
electric ethers, as more of the vitreous one round glass, and 
more of the resinous one round resin ; and, it is probable, 
that these mixed atmospheres, which surround imperfect 
conducting bodies, consist also of different proportions of 



58 \ Additional Notes. 

the vitrecjis and resinous ethers, according to their being 
more or l£ss perfect conductors. These minute degrees of 
the diffejence o\ these electric atmospheres are evinced by 
Mr. Beiiiet's Dpubler of Electricity, as shown in his work, 
and are termed (by him Adhesive Electric Atmospheres, to 
distinguish theii from those accumulated by art ; thus the 
natural adhesivl electricity of silver is more of the vitreous 
kind compared vith that of zinc, which consists of a great- 
er proportion of \ the resinous ; that is, in his language, sil- 
ver is positive ant zinc negative. This experiment I have 
successfully repjated with Mr. Bennet's Doubler along 
with Mr. SwanWick. 

7. Great accumulation or condensation of the separate 
electric ethers attetct each other so strongly, that they will 
break a passage trough nonconducting bodies, as through a 
plate of glass, or f air, and will rend bodies which are less 
perfect conductop, and give out light and heat like the ex- 
plosion of a trail of gun-powder ; whence, when a strong 
electric shock is bassed through a quire of paper, a bur, or 
elevation of the (heets, is seen on both sides of it occasioned 
by the explosioii Whence trees and stone walls are burst 
by lightning, ani wires are fused, and inflammable bodies 
burnt, by the hekt given out along with the flash of light, 
which cannot belexplained by the mechanic theory. 

8. When artificial or natural accumulations of these sepa- 
rate ethers are very minute in quantity or intensity, they 
pass slowly and with difficulty from one body to another, and 
require the best conductors for this purpose ; whence many 
of the phenomena of the torpedo or gymnotus, and of Gal- 
vanism. Thus after having discharged a coated jar, if the com- 
municating wire has been quickly withdrawn, a second small 
shock may be taken after the principal discharge, and this 
repeatedly two or three times. 

Hence the charge of the Galvanic pile being very minute 
in quantity or intensity, will not readily pass through the 
dry cuticle of the hands, though it so easily passes through 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetic 50 
animal flesh or nerves, as this combination of charc^l with 
water seems to constitute the most perfect condvkor yet 
known. 

9. As light is reflected from the surface of a mirrobefore 
it actually touches it, and as drops of water are rpelled 
from cabbage leaves without touching them, and as\il lies 
on water without touching it, and also as a fine need! may 
be made to lie on water without touching it, as shcfn by 
Mr. Melville in the Literary Essays of Edinburgh ithere 
is reason to believe, that the vitreous and resinous etctric 
ethers are repelled by, or will not pass through, thl sur- 
faces of glass or resin, to which they are applied. j But 
though neither of these electric ethers passes throud the 
surfaces of glass or resin, yet their attractive or replsive 
powers pass through them ; as the attractive or rerilsive 
power of the magnet to iron passes through the atmosnere, 
and all other bodies which exist between them. So ji in- 
sulated cork-ball, when electrised either with vitrecis or 
resinous ether, repels another insulated cork-ball elecrised 
with the same kind of ether through half an inch ofpom- 
mon air, though these electric atmospheres do not unre. 

Whence it may be concluded, that the general attractive 
and repulsive ethers accompany the electric ethers as veil 
as they accompany all other bodies ; and that the electric 
ethers do not themselves attract or repel through glass o* 
resin, as they cannot pass through them, but strongly at- 
tract each other when they come into contact, rush together, 
and produce an explosion of the sudden liberation of heat 
and light. 



III. Effect of Metallic Points, 

I. When a pointed wire is presented by a person standing 
on the ground to an insulated conductor, on which either 
vitreous or resinous electricity is accumulated, the accumu- 
lated electricity will pass off at a much greater distance 



(30 Additional Notes. 

than ia metallic knob be fixed on the wire and presented 

in itscead. 

2. lie same occurs if the metallic point be fixed on the 
electsed conductor, and the finger of a person standing on 
the found be presented to it, the accumulated electricity- 
will ass off at a much greater distance, and indeed will 
soor discharge itself by communicating the accumulated 
elecicity to the atmosphere. 

3 If a metallic point be fixed on the prime conductor, 
and he flame of a candle be presented to it, on electrising 
theconductor either with vitreous or resinous ether, the 
flare of the candle is blown from the point, which must 
be wing to the electric fluid in its passage from the point 
caiying along with it a stream of atmospheric air. 

Tie manner in which the accumulated electricity so rea- 
dib passes oft' by a metallic point may be thus understood ; 
whn a metallic point stands erect from an electrised me- 
tal!: plane, the accumulated electricity which exists on 
the extremity of the point, is attracted less than that on the 
othe- parts of the electrised surface. For the particle of 
elec:ric matter immediately over the point is attracted by 
mat point only, whereas the particles of electric matter 
over every other part of the electrised plane, is not only at- 
tracted by the parts of the plane immediately under them, 
but also laterally by the circumjacent parts of it ; whence 
the accumulated electric fluid is pushed off at this point by 
that over the other parts being more strongly attracted to 
the plane. 

Thus if a light insulated horizontal fly be constructed of 
wire with points fixed as tangents to the circle, it will re- 
volve the way contrary to the direction of the points as long 
as it continues to be electrised. For the same reason as 
when a circle of cork, with a point of the cork standing 
from it like a tangent, is smeared with oil, and thrown upon 
a lake, it will continue to revolve backwards in respect to 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 61 
the direction of the point till all the oil is dispersed upon 
the lake, at first observed by Dr. Franklin ; for the oil be- 
ing attracted to all the other parts of the cork-circle more 
than towards the pointed tangent, that part over the point 
is pushed off and diffuses itself on the water, over which it 
passes without touching, and consequently without fric- 
tion ; and thus the cork revolves in the contrary direction. 

As the flame of a candle is blown from a point fixed on 
an electrised conductor, whether vitreous or resinous elec- 
tricity is accumulated on it, it shows that in both cases elec- 
tricity passes from the point, which is a forcible argument 
against the mechanical theory of positive and negative elec- 
tricity; because then the flame should be blown towards 
the point in one case, and from it in the other. 

So the electric fly, as it turns horizontally, recedes from 
the direction of the points of the tangents, whether it be 
electrised with vitreous or resinous electricity ; whereas if 
it was supposed to receive electricity, when electrised by 
resin, and to part with it when electrised by glass, it ought 
to revolve different ways ; which also forcibly opposes the 
theory of positive and negative electricity. 

As an electrised point with either kind of electricity 
causes a stream of air to pass from it in the direction of the 
point, it seems to affect the air much in the same manner 
as the fluid matter of heat affects it ; that is, it will not rea- 
dily pass through it, but will adhere to the particles of air, 
and is thus carried away with them. 

From this it will also appear, that points do not attract 
electricity, properly speaking, but suffer it to depart from 
them ; as it is there less attracted to the body which it sur- 
rounds, than by any other part of the surface. 

And as a point presented to an electrised conductor facili- 
tates the discharge of it, and blows the flame of a candle 



62 Additional Notes. 

towards the conductor, whether vitreous or resinous elec- 
tricity be accumulated upon it ; it follows, that in both ca- 
ses some electric matter passes from the point to the con- 
ductor, and that hence there are two electric ethers ; and 
that they combine or explode when they meet together, 
and give out light and heat, and occupy less space in this 
their combined state, like the union of nitrous gas with oxy- 
gen gas. 



IV. Accumulation of Electric Ethers by Contact. 

The electric ethers may be separately accumulated by 
contact of conductors with nonconductors, by vicinity of 
the two ethers, by heat, and by decomposition. 

Glass is believed to consist in part of consolidated resin- 
ous ether, and thence to attract an electric atmosphere 
round it, which consists of a greater proportion of vitreous 
ether compared to the quantity of the resinous, as mentioned 
in Proposition No. 4. This atmosphere may stand off a line 
from the surface of the glass, though its attractive or repul- 
sive power may extend to a much greater distance ; and a 
more equally mixed electric atmosphere may stand off about 
the same distance from the surface of a cushion. 

Now when a cushion is forcibly pressed upon the surface 
of a glass cylinder or plane, the atmosphere of the cushion 
is forced within that of the glass, and consequently the vi~ 
treous part of it is brought within the sphere of the attrac- 
tion of the resinous ether combined with the glass, and 
therefore becomes attracted by it in addition to the vitreous 
part of the spontaneous atmosphere of the glass ; and the 
resinous part of the atmosphere of the cushion is at the same 
time repelled by its vicinity to the combined resinous ether 
of the glass. From both which circumstances a vitreous 
ether alone surrounds the part of the glass on which the 
cushion is forcibly pressed ; which does not, nevertheless, 
resemble an electrised coated jar ; as this accumulation of 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 63 
vitreous ether on one side of the glass is not so violently con- 
densed, or so forcibly attracted to the glass by the loose re- 
sinous ether on the other side of it, as occurs in the charged 
coated jar. 

Hence as weak differences of the kinds or quantities of 
electricity do not very rapidly change place, if the cushion 
be suddenly withdrawn, with or without friction, I sup- 
pose an accumulation of vitreous electric ether will be left 
on the surface of the glass, which will diffuse itself on an 
insulated conductor by the assistance of points, or will gra- 
dually be dissipated in the air, probably like odours by the 
repulsion of its own particles, or may be conducted away by 
the surrounding air as it is repelled from it, or by the moisture 
or other impurities of the atmosphere. And hence I do not 
suppose the friction of the glass-globe to be necessary, ex- 
cept for the purpose of more easily removing the parts of 
the surface from the pressure of the cushion to the points of 
the prime conductor, and to bring them more easily into re- 
ciprocal contact. 

When sealing-wax or sulphur is rubbed by a cushion, 
exactly the same circumstance occurs, but with the differ- 
ent ethers ; as the resinous ether of the spontaneous atmos- 
phere of the cushion, when it is pressed within the sponta- 
neous atmosphere of the sealing-wax, is attracted by the 
solid vitreous ether, which is combined with it ; and at the 
same time the vitreous ether of the cushion is repelled by 
it ; and hence an atmosphere of resinous ether alone exists 
between the sealing-wax and the cushion thus pressed toge- 
ther. It is nevertheless possible, that friction on both seal- 
ing-wax and glass may add some facility to the accumula- 
tions of their opposite ethers by the warmth which it occa- 
sions. As most electric machines succeed best after being 
warmed, I think even in dry frosty seasons. 

Though when a cushion is applied to a smooth surfaced 
glass, so as to intermix their electric atmospheres, the vitre- 
ous ether of the cushion is attracted by the resinous ethei 
combined with, the glass ; but does not intermix with it ; 



64 Additional Notes. 

but only adheres to it : arid as the glass turns round, the 
vitreous electric atmosphere stands on the solid resinous 
electric ether combined with the glass; and is taken away 
by the metallic points of the prime conductor. 

Yet if the surface of the glass be roughened by scratch- 
ing it with a diamond or with hard sand, a new event oc- 
curs ; which is, that the vitreous ether attracted from the 
cushion by the resinous ether combined with the glass be- 
comes adhesive to it ; and stands upon the roughened glass, 
and will not quit the glass to go to the prime conductor ; 
whence the surface of the glass having a vitreous electric 
atmosphere united, as it were, to its inequalities, becomes 
similar to resin ; and will now attract, resinous electric ether, 
like a stick of sealing-wax, without combining with it. 
Whence this curious and otherwise unintelligible phenome- 
non, that smooth surfaced glass will give vitreous electric 
ether to an insulated conductor, and glass with a roughened 
surface will give resinous ether to it, 



V. Accumulation of electric ethers by vicinity. 

Though the contact of a cushion on the whirling glass 
is the easiest method yet in use for the accumulation of the 
vitreous electric ether on an insulated conductor; yet there 
are other methods of effecting this, as by the vicinity of the 
two electric ethers with a nonconductor between them. 

Thus I believe a great quantity of both vitreous and re- 
sinous electric ether may be accumulated in the following 
manner. Let a glass jar be coated within in the usual man- 
ner; but let it have a loose external coating, which can 
easily be withdrawn by an insulating handle. Then charge 
the jar, as highly as it may be, by throwing into it vitre- 
ous electric ether ; and in this state hermetically seal it, if 
practicable, otherwise close it with a glass stopple and wax. 
When the external coating is drawn off by an insulating 
handle, having previously had a communication with the 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 65 
earth, it will possess an accumulation of resinous electric 
ether ; and then touching it with your finger, a spark will 
be seen, and there will cease to be any accumulated ether. 

Thus by alternately replacing this loose coating, and with- 
drawing it from the sealed charged jar, by means of an in- 
sulating handle ; and by applying it to one insulated con- 
ductor, when it is in the vicinity of the jar; and to another 
insulated conductor, Avhen it is withdrawn ; vitreous elec- 
tric ether may be accumulated on one of them, and resin- 
ous on the other ; and thus I suspect an immense quantity 
of both ethers may be produced without friction or much 
labour, if a large electric battery was so contrived; and that 
it might be applied to many mechanical purposes, where 
other explosions are now used, as in the place of steam en- 
gines, or to rend rocks, or timber, or destroy invading ar- 
mies. 

The principle of this mode of accumulating the two elec- 
tric ethers in some measure resembles that of Volta's Elec- 
trophorus and Bennet's Doubler. 



VI. Accumulation of electric ethers by heat and by 
decomposition. 

When glass or amber is heated by the fire in a dry sea- 
son, I suspect that it becomes in some degree electric ; as 
either of the electric ethers which is combined with them 
may have its combination with those materials loosened by 
the application of heat ; and that on this account they may 
more forcibly attract the opposite one from the air in their 
vicinity. 

It has long been known, that a siliceous stone called the 
tourmalin, when its surfaces are polished, if it be laid down 
before the fire, will become electrified with vitreous, or 
what is called positive electricity on its upper surface ; and 



66 Additional Notes, 

resinous, or what is called negative electricity on its under 
surface ; which I suppose lay in contact with somewhat 
which supported it near the fire. 

In this experiment I suppose the tourmalin to be natu- 
rally combined with resinous electric ether like glass ; which 
on one side next towards the fire by the increase of its at- 
tractive power, owing to the heat having loosened its com- 
bination with the earth of the stone, more strongly attracts 
vitreous electric ether from the atmosphere ; which now 
stands on its surface : and then as the lower surface of the 
stone lies in contact with the hearth, the less quantity of 
vitreous ether is there repelled by the greater quantity of it 
on the upper surface ; while the resinous ether is attracted 
by it : and the stone is thus charged like a coated jar with 
vitreous electric ether condensed on one side of it, and re- 
sinous on the other. 

So cats, as they lie by the fire in a frosty day, become so 
electric as frequently to give a perceptible spark to one's fin- 
ger from their ears without friction. 

A fourth method of separating the two ethers would seem 
to be by the decomposition of metallic bodies, as in the ex- 
periment with Volta's Galvanic pile ; which is said by Mr. 
Davy to act so much more powerfully, when an acid is ad- 
ded to the water used in the experiment ; as will be spoken 
of below. 

From experiments made by M. Saussure on the electricity 
of evaporated water from hot metallic vessels, and from 
those of china and glass, he found when the vessel was calcin- 
ed or made rusty by the evaporating water, that the electri- 
city of it was positive (or vitreous), and that from china or 
glass was negative (or resinous), Encyclop. Britan. Art. 
Elect. No. 206, which seems also to show, that vitreous 
electric ether was given out or produced by the corrosion of 
metals, and resinous ether from the evaporation of water. 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 67 



VII. The spark from the conductor, and of electric light. 

When either the vitreous or resinous electric ether is ac- 
cumulated on an insulated conductor, and an uninsulated 
conductor, as the finger of an attendant, is applied nearly 
in contact with it, what happens ? The attractive and re- 
pulsive powers of the accumulated electric ether pass through 
the nonconducting plate of air, and if it be of the vitreous 
kind, it attracts the resinous electric ether of the finger 
towards it, and repels the vitreous electric ether of the fin- 
ger from it. 

Hence there exists for an instant a charged plate of air 
between the finger and the prime conductor, with an accu- 
mulation of vitreous ether on one side of it, and of resin- 
ous ether on the other side of it ; and lastly these two kinds 
of electric ethers suddenly unite by their powerful attrac- 
tion of each other, explode, and give out heat and light, and 
rupture the plateof nonconducting air, which separated them. 

The rupture or disjunction of the plate of air is known 
by the sound of the spark, as of thunder ; which shows 
that a vacuum of air was previously produced by the ex- 
plosion of the electric fluids, and a vibration of the air in 
consequence of the sudden joining again of the sides of the 
vacuum. 

The light which attends electric sparks and shocks, is 
not accounted for by the Theory of Dr. Franklin. I sus- 
pect that it is owing to the combination of the two electric 
ethers, from which as from all chemical explosions both 
light and heat are set at liberty, and because a smell is said 
to be perceptible from electric sparks, and even a taste 
which must be deduced from new combinations, or decom- 
positions, as in other explosions : add to this that the same 
thing occurs, when electric shocks are passed through eggs 
in the dark, or through water, a luminous line is seen like 



68 Additional Notes. 

the explosion of a train of gun-powder ; lastly, whether 
light is really produced in the passage of the Galvanic elec- 
tricity through the eyes, or that the sensation alone of light 
is perceived by its stimulating the optic nerve, has not yet 
been investigated; but I suspect the former, as it emits 
light from its explosion even in passing through eggs and 
through water, as mentioned above. 



VIII. The shock from the coated jar, and of electric 
condensation. 

1. When a glass jar is coated on both sides, and either 
vitreous or resinous electricity is thrown upon the coating 
on one side, and there is a communication to the earth from 
the other side, the same thing happens as in the plate of air 
between the finger and prime conductor above described ; 
that is, the accumulated electricity, if it be of the vitreous 
kind, on one coating of the glass jar will attract the resinous 
part of the electricity, which surrounds or penetrates the 
coating on the other side of the jar, and also repel the vitre- 
ous part of it ; but this occurs on a much more extensive sur- 
face than in the instance of the plate of air between the 
finger and prime conductor. 

The difference between electric sparks and shocks consists 
in this circumstance, that in the former the insulating me- 
dium, whether of air, or of thin glass, is ruptured in one 
part, and thus a communication is made between the vitre- 
ous and resinous ethers, and they unite immediately, like 
globules of quicksilver, when pressed forcibly together: 
but in the electric shock a communication is made by some 
conducting body applied to the other extremities of the 
vitreous, and of the resinous atmospheres, through which 
they pass and unite, whether both sides of the coated jar 
are insulated, or only one side of it. 

And in this line, as they reciprocally meet, they appear 
to explode and give out light and heat, and a new combi- 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 69 
nation of the two ethers is produced, as a residuum after 
the explosion, which probably occupies much less space 
than either the vitreous or resinous ethers did separately be- 
fore. At the same time there may be another unrestrain- 
able ethereal fluid yet unobserved, given out from this ex- 
plosion which rends oak trees, bursts stone-walls, lights in- 
flammable substances, and fuses metals, or dissipates them 
in a calciform smoak, along with which great light and 
much heat are emitted, or these effects are produced by 
the heat and light only thus set at liberty by their synchro- 
nous and sudden evolution. 

2. The curious circumstance of electric condensation ap- 
pears from the violence of the shock of the coated jar com- 
pared with the strongest spark from an insulated conductor, 
though the latter possesses a much greater surface; when 
vitreous electric ether is thrown on one side of a coated jar, 
it attracts the resinous electric ether of the other side of the 
coated jar; and the same occurs, when resinous ether is 
thrown on one side of it, it attracts the vitreous ether of the 
other side of it, and thus the vitreous electric ether on one 
side of the jar, and the resinous ether on the other side of 
it become condensed, that is accumulated in less space, by 
their reciprocal attraction of each other. 

This condensation of the two electric ethers owing to 
their reciprocal attraction appears from another curious 
event, that the thinner the glass jar is, the stronger will the 
charge be on the same quantity of surface, as then the two 
ethers approaching nearer without their intermixing attract 
each other stronger, and consequently condense each other 
more. And when the glass jar is very thin the reciprocal 
attractive powers of the vitreous and resinous ether attract 
each other so violently as at length to pass through the glass 
by rupturing it, in the same manner as a less forcible attrac- 
tion of them ruptures and passes through the plate of air 
jn the production of sparks from the prime conductor. 



70 Additional Notes. 

As these two ethers on each side of a charged coated jar so 
powerfully attract each other, when a communication is 
made between them by some conducting substance as in the 
common mode of discharging an electrised coated jar, they 
reciprocally pass to each other for the purpose of combin- 
ing, as some chemical fluids are known to do ; as when ni- 
trous gas and oxygen gas are mixed together ; whence as 
these fluids pass both ways to intermix with each other, and 
then explode ; a bur appears on each side of a quire of pa- 
per w T ell pressed together, when a strong electric shock is 
passed through it; which is occasioned by their explosion, 
like a train of gun-powder, and consequent emission of 
some other ethereal fluid, either those of heat and light or 
of some new one not yet observed. Whence it becomes 
difficult to explain, according to the theory of Dr. Frank- 
lin, which way the electric fluid passed, and which side of 
the coated jar contained positive and which the negative 
charge according to that doctrine. 

But the theory of the ingenious Dr. Franklin failed also 
in explaning other phenomena of the coated jar ; since if 
the positive electricity accumulated on one side of the jar 
repelled the electricity from the coating on the other side 
of it, so as to produce an electric vacuum ; why should it 
be so eager, when a communication is made by some con- 
ducting body, to run into that vacuum by its attraction or 
'gravitation, which has been made by its repulsion ; as thus 
it seems to be violently attracted by the vacuum from which 
it had previously repelled a fluid similar to itself, which is 
rtot easily to be comprehended. 

3. There is another mode by which either vitreous or 
resinous electric ether is capable of condensation ; which 
consits in contracting the volume, so as to diminish the 
surface of the electrised body ; as was ingeniously shown by 
Dr. Franklin's experiment of electrising a silver tankard 
with a length of chain rolled up within it ; and then draw- 
ing up the chain by a silk string, which weakened the elec- 
tric attraction of the tankard ; which was strengthened 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 71 

again by returning the chain into it ; thus the condensation 
of a» electrised cloud is believed to condense che electric 
ether, which it contains, and thus to occasion the lightning 
passing from one cloud to another, or from a cloud into the 
earth. 

This experiment of the chain and tankard is said to suc- 
ceed a6 well with what is termed negative electricity in the 
theory of Dr. Franklin, as with what is termed positive 
electricity ; but in that theory the negative electricity means' 
a less quantity or total deprivation or vacuity of that fluid ; 
now to condense negative electricity by lowering the sus- 
pended chain into the tankard ought to make it less nega- 
tive ; whereas in this experiment I am told it becomes more 
so, as appears by its stronger repulsion of cork-balls sus- 
pended on silk strings, and previously electrised by rubbed 
sealing-wax : and if the negative electricity be believed to 
be a perfect vacuum of it, the condensation of a vacuum 
of electricity is totally incomprehensible ; and this experi- 
ment alone seems to demonstrate the existence of two 
electric ethers. 



IX. Of Galvanic Electricity. 

i. The conductors of electricity, as well as the noncon- 
ductors of it, have probably a portion of the vitreous and 
resinous ethers combined with them, and have also another 
portion of these ethers diffused round them, which forms 
their natural or spontaneous adhesive atmospheres; and 
which exists in different proportions round them correspond- 
ent in quantity to those which are combined with them, but 
opposite in kind. 

These adhesive spontaneous atmospheres of electricity 
are shown to consist of different proportions or quantities 
of the electric ethers by Mr. Bennet's Doubler of Electri- 
city, as mentioned in his work called New Experiments on 
Electricity, sold by Johnson. In this work, p. 91 the 



72 Additional Notes. 

blade of a steel knife was evidently, fn his language, posi- 
tive, compared to a soft iron wire which was comparatively 
negative ; so the adhesive electricity of gold, silver, copper, 
brass, bismuth, mercury, and various kinds of wood and 
stone, were what he terms positive or vitreous ; and that 
of tin and zinc, what he terms negative or resinous. 

Where these spontaneous atmospheres of diffused elec- 
tricity surrounding two conducting bodies, as two pieces 
of silver, are perfectly similar, they probably do not inter- 
mix when brought into the vicinity of each other ; but if 
these spontaneous atmospheres of diffused electricity are 
different in respect to the proportion of the two ethers, or 
perhaps in respect to their quantity, in however small de- 
gree either of these circumstances exists, they may be made 
to unite but with some difficulty; as the two metallic plates, 
suppose one of silver, and another of zinc, which they sur- 
round, must be brought into absolute or adhesive contact ; 
or otherwise these atmospheres may be forced together so as 
to be much flattened , and compress each other where they 
meet, like small globules of quicksilver when pressed toge- 
ther, but without uniting. 

This curious phenomenon may be seen in more dense 
electric atmospheres accumulated by art, as in the following 
experiment ascribed to Mr. Canton. Lay a wooden skewer 
the size of a goose-quill across a dry wine-glass, and ano- 
ther across another wine-glass ; let the ends of them touch 
each other, as they lie in a horizontal line ; call them X 
and Y ; approach a rubbed glass-tube near the external end 
of the skewer X, but not so as to touch it ; then separate 
the two skewers by removing the wine-glasses further 
from each other; and lastly, withdraw the rubbed glass- 
tube, and the skewer X will now be found to possess resin- 
ous electricity, which has been generally called negative 
or minus electricity ; and the skewer Y will be found to 
possess vitreous, or what is generally termed positive or 
plus electricity, 






Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 73 
The same phenomenon will occur if rubbed sealing-wax 
be applied near to, but not in contact with, the skewer X, 
as the skewer X will then be left with an atmosphere of 
vitreous ether, and the skewer Y with one of resinous ether. 
These experiments also evince the existence of two electric 
fluids, as they cannot be understood from an idea of one 
being a greater or less quantity of the same material ; as a 
vacuum of electric ether, brought near to one end of the 
skewer, cannot be conceived so to attract the ether as to 
produce a vacuum at the other end. 

In this experiment the electric atmospheres, which are 
nearly of similar kinds, do not seem to touch, as there may 
remain a thin plate of air between them, in the same man- 
ner as small globulus of mercury may be pressed together 
so as to compress each other, long before they intermix ; or 
as plates of lead or brass require strongly to be pressed toge- 
ther before they acquire the attraction of cohesion ; that is, 
before they come into real contact. 

2. It is probable, that all bodies are more or less perfect 
conductors, as they have less or more of either of the elec- 
tric ethers combined with them ; as mentioned in Prelimi- 
nary Proposition, No. VI. as they may then less resist the 
passage of either of the ethers through them. Whence 
some conducting bodies admit the junction of these sponta- 
neous electric atmospheres, in which the proportions or 
quantities of the two ethers are not very different, with 
greater facility than others. 

Thus in the common experiments, where the vitreous or 
resinous ether is accumulated by art, metallic bodies have 
been esteemed the best conductors, and next to these water, 
and all other moist bodies ; but it was lately discovered, 
that dry charcoal, recently burnt, was a more perfect con- 
ductor than metals ; and it appears from the experiments 
discovered by Galvani, which have thence the name of 
Galvanism, that animal flesh, and particularly perhaps the 
nerves of animals, both which are composed of much carbon 



74 Additional Notes. 

and water, are the most perfect conductors yet discovered ; 
that is, that they give the least resistance to the junction of 
the spontaneous electric atmospheres, which exist round 
metallic bodies, and which differ very little in respect to 
the proportions of their vitreous and resinous ingredients. 

Thus also, though where the accumulated electricities 
are dense, as in charging a coated gkss-jar, the glass which 
intervenes, may be of considerable thickness, and may still 
become charged by the stronger attraction of the secondary 
electric ethers ; but where the spontaneous adhesive elec- 
tric atmospheres are employed to charge plates of air, as 
in the Galvanic pile, or probably to charge thin animal 
membranes or cuticles, as perhaps in the shock given by the 
torpedo of gymnotus, it seems necessary that the interven- 
ing nonconducting plate must be extremely thin, that it 
may become charged by the weaker attraction of these small 
quantities or difference of the spontaneous electric atmos- 
pheres; and in this circumstance only, I suppose, the 
shocks from the Galvanic pile, and from the torpedo and 
gymnotus, differ from those of the coated jar. 

3. When atmospheres of electricity, which do not differ 
much in the quantity or proportion of their vitreous and 
resinous ethers, approach each other, they are not easily or 
rapidly united ; but the predominant vitreous or resiuous 
ether of one of them repels the similar ether of the opposed 
atmosphere, and attracts the contrary kind of ether. 

The slowness or difficulty with which atmospheres, 
which differ but little in kind or in density, unite with each 
other, appears not only from the experiment of Mr. Canton 
above related, but also from the repeated smaller shocks, 
which may be taken from a charged coated jar after the 
first or principal discharge, if the conducting medium has 
not been quickly removed, as is also mentioned above. 

Hence those atmospheres of either kind of electric mat- 
ter, which differ but very little from each other in kind or 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. J$ 
quantity, require the most perfect conductors to cause them 
to unite. Thus it appears by Mr. Bennet's doubter, as men- 
tioned in the Preliminary Proposition, No. VI. that the na- 
tural adhesive atmosphere round silver contains more vitre- 
ous electricity than that naturally round zinc ; but when 
thin plates of these metals, each about an ounce in weight, 
are laid on each other, or moderately pressed together, their 
atmospheres do not unite. For metallic plates, which 
when laid on each other, do not adhere, cannot be said 
to be in real contact, of which their not adhering is a proof; 
and in .consequence a thin plate of air, or of their own re- 
pulsive ethers exists between them. 

Hence when two plates of zinc and silver are thus brought 
in to the vicinity of each other, the plate of air between 
them, as they are not in adhesive contact, becomes like a 
charged coated jar; and if these two metallic plates are 
touched by your diy hands, they do not unite their elec- 
tricities, as the dry cuticle is not a sufficiently good con- 
ductor; but if one of the metals be put above, and another 
under the tongue, the saliva and moist mucous membrane, 
muscular fibres, and nerves, supply so good a conductor, 
that this very minute electric shock is produced, and a kind 
of pungent taste is perceived. 

When a plate or pencil of silver is put between the upper 
lip and the gum, and a plate or pencil of zinc under the 
tongue, a sensation of light is perceived in the eyes, as often, 
as the exterior extremities of these metals are brought into 
contact ; which is owing in like manner to the discharge of 
a very minute electric shock, which would not have been 
produced but by the intervention of such good conductors 
as moist membranes, muscular fibres, and nerves. 

In this situation, a sensation of light is produced in the 
eyes; which seems to show, that these ethers pass through 
nerves more easily, than through muscular flesh simply ; 
since the passage of them through the retina of the eyes 
from the upper gum to the parts beneath the tongue is a 



76 Additional Notes. 

more distant one, than would otherwise appear necessary. 
It is not so easy to give the sensation of light in the eyes by 
passing a small shock of artificially accumulated electricity 
through the eyes (though this may, I believe, be done) be- 
cause this artificial accumulated electricity, as it passes with 
greater velocity than the spontaneous accumulations of it, 
will readily permeate the muscles or other moist parts of 
animal bodies : whereas the spontaneous accumulations of 
electricity seem to require the best of all conductors, as 
animal nerves, to facilitate their passage. 

4. In the Galvanic pile of Volta this electric shock be- 
comes so much increased, as to pass by less perfect con- 
ductors, and to give shocks to the arms of the conducting 
person, if the cuticle of his hands be moistened, and even 
to show sparks like the coated jar ; which appears to be ef- 
fected in this manner. When a plate of silver is laid hori- 
zontally on a plate of zinc, the plate of air between them 
becomes charged like a coated jar; as the silver, naturally 
possessing more vitreous electric ether, repels the vitreous 
ether, which the zinc possesses in less quantity, and attracts 
the resinous ether of the zinc. Whence the inferior sur-^ 
face of the plate of zinc abounds now with vitreous ether, 
and its upper surface with resinous ether. Beneath this pair 
of plates lay a cloth moistened with water, or with some 
better conductor, as salt and water, or a slight acid mixed 
with water, or volatile alcali of ammoniac mixed with wa- 
ter, and this vitreous electric ether on the lower surface of 
the zinc plate will be given to the second silver plate which 
lies beneath it; and thus. this second silver plate will pos- 
sess not only its own natural vitreous atmosphere, which 
was denser or in greater quantity than that of the zinc plate 
next beneath it, but now acquires an addition of vitreous 
ether from the zinc plate above it, conducted to it through 
the moist cloth. 



This then will repel more vitreous ether from the second 
zinc plate into the third silver one; and so on till the 
plates of air between the zincs and silvers are all charged, 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 77 
and each stronger and stronger, as they descend in the 
pile. 

If the reader still prefers the Franklinian theory of posi- 
tive and negative electricity, he will please to put the word 
positive for vitreous, and negative for resinous, and he will 
find the theory of the Galvanic pile equally thus accounted 
for. 

5. When a Galvanic pile is thus placed, and a commu- 
nication between the two ends of it is made by wires, so 
that the electric shocks pass through water, the water be- 
comes decomposed in some measure, and oxygen is libe- 
rated from it at the point of one wire, and hydrogen at the 
point of the other ; and this though a syphon of water be 
interposed between them. This curious circumstance seems 
to evince the existence of two electric ethers, which enter 
the water at different ends of the syphon, and have chemi- 
cal affinities to the component parts of it; the resinous ether 
sets at liberty the hydrogen at one end, and the vitreous 
ether the oxygen at the other end of the conducting me- 
dium. 

Hence it must appear, that the longer the Galvanic pile, 
or the greater the number of the alternate pieces of silver 
and zinc that it consists of, the stronger will be the Galva- 
nic shock; but there is another circumstance difficult to 
explain, which is the perpetual decomposition of water by 
the Galvanic pile ; when the water is made the conducting 
medium between the two extremities of the pile. 

As no conductors of electricity are absolutely perfect, 
there must be produced a certain accumulation of vitreous 
ether on one side of each charged plate of the Galvanic pile, 
and of resinous ether on the other side of it, before the dis- 
charge takes place, even though the conducting medium be 
in appa^nt contact. When the discharge does take place, 
the whole of the accumulated electricity explodes and van* 



78 Additional Notes. 

ishes; and then an instant of time is required for the silver 
and zinc again to attract from the air, or other bodies in 
their vicinity, their spontaneous natural atmospheres, and 
then another discharge ensues ; and so repeatedly and per- 
petually till the surface of one of the metallic plates be- 
comes so much oxydated or calcined, that it ceases to act. 

Hence a perpetual motion may be said to be produced, 
with an incessant decomposition of water into the two gas- 
ses of oxygen and hydrogen ; which must probably be con- 
stantly proceeding on all moist surfaces, where a chain of 
electric conductors exists, surrounded with different pro- 
portions of the two electric ethers. Whence the ceaseless 
liberation of oxygen from the water has oxydated or cal- 
cined the ores of metals near the surface of the earth, as of 
manganese, of zinc into lapis calaminaris, of iron into 
various ochres, and other calci-form ores. From this source 
also the corrosion of some metals may be traced, when they 
are immersed in water in the vicinity of each other, as when 
the copper sheathing of ships was held on by iron nails. 
And hence another great operation of nature is probably 
produced, I mean the restoration of oxygen to the atmos- 
phere from the surface of the earth in dewy mornings, as 
well as from the perspiration of vegetable leaves ; which 
atmospheric oxygen is hourly destructible by the respira- 
tion of animals and plants, by combustion, and by other 
oxydations. 

6. The combination of the electric ethers with metallic 
bodies before mentioned appears from the Galvanic pile ; 
since, according to the experiments of Mr. Davy, when an 
acid is mixed with the water placed between the alternate 
pairs of silver and zinc plates a much greater electric shock 
is produced by the same pile ; and an anonymous writer in 
the Phil. Magaz. No. 36, for May 1801, asserts, that when 
the intervening cloths or papers are moistened with pure 
alcali, as a solution of pure ammonia, the effect is greater 
than by any other material. It must here be observed, that 
both the acid and the alcaline solution, or common salt and 






Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 79 

water, and even water alone, in these experiments much 
erodes the plates of zinc, and somewhat tarnishes those of 
silver. Whence it would appear, that as by the repeated 
explosions of the two electric ethers in the conducting wa- 
ter both oxygen and hydrogen are liberated ; the oxygen 
erodes the zinc plates, and thus increases the Galvanic shock 
by liberating their combined electric ethers : and that this 
erosion is much increased by a mixture either of acid or of 
volatile alcaii with the water. Further experiments are 
wanting on this subject to show whether metallic bodies 
emit either or both of the electric ethers at the time of their 
solution or erosion in acids or in alcalies. 



X. Of the two Magnetic Ethers. 

1. Magnetism coincides with electricity in so many import- 
ant points that the existence of two magnetic ethers, as 
well as of two electric ones, becomes highly probable. We 
shall suppose that in a common bar of iron or steel the two 
magnetic ethers exist intermixed or in their neutral state ; 
which for the greater ease of speaking of them may be cal- 
led arctic ether and antarctic ether; and in this state like the 
two electric fluids they are not cognizable by our senses or 
experiments. 

When these two magnetic ethers are separated from each 
other, and the arctic ether is accumulated on one end of an 
iron or steel bar, which is then called the north pole of the 
magnet, and the antarctic ether is accumulated on the other 
end of the bar, and is then termed the south pole of the 
magnet; they become capable of attracting other pieces of 
iron or steel, and are thus cognizable by experiments. 

It seems probable, that it is not the magnetic ether itself 
which attracts or repels particles of iron, but that an attrac- 
tive and repulsive ether attends the magnetic ethers, as was 
shown to attend the electric ones in No. II. p, of this Note ; 
because magnetism does not pass through other bodies, as 



80 Additional Notes. 

it does escape from magnetised steel when in contact with 
other bodies; just as the electric fluids do not pass through 
glass, but the attractive and repellent ethers, which attend 
both the magnetic and electric ethers, pass through all bo- 
dies. 

2. The prominent articles of analogical coincidence be- 
tween magnetism and electricity are first, that when one 
end of an iron bar possesses an accumulation of arctic mag- 
netic ether, or northern polarity ; the other end possesses an 
accumulation of antarctic magnetic ether, or southern pola- 
rity ; in the same manner as when vitreous electric ether is 
accumulated on one side of a coated glass jar, resinous elec- 
tric ether becomes accumulated on the other side of it ; as 
the vitreous and resinous ethers strongly attract each other, 
and strongly repel the ethers of the same denomination, 
but are prevented from intermixing by the glass plane be- 
tween them ; so the arctic and antarctic ethers attract each 
other, and repel those of similar denomination, but are pre- 
vented from intermixing by the iron or steel being a bad 
conductor of them ; they will, nevertheless, sooner com- 
bine when the bar is of soft iron, than when it is hardened 
steel ; and then they slowly combine without explosion, that 
is, without emitting heat and light like the electric ethers, 
and therefore resemble a mixture of oxygen and pure am- 
monia; which unite silently producing a neutral fluid 
without emitting any other fluids previously combined with 
them. 

Secondly, If the north pole of a magnetic bar be ap- 
proached near to the eye of a sewing needle, the arctic 
ether of the magnet attracts the antarctic ether, which re- 
sides in the needle towards the eye of it, and repels the arc- 
tic ether, which resides in the needle towards the point, 
precisely in the same manner as occurs in presenting an 
electrised glass tube, or a rubbed stick of sealing-wax to 
one extremity of two skewers insulated horizontally on wine 
glasses in the experiment ascribed to Mr. Canton, and de- 
scribed in No. IX. 1, of this Additional Note, and also so 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 81 
exactly resembles the method of producing a separation and 
consequent accumulation of the two electric ethers by press- 
ing a cushion on glass or on sealing-wax, described in No. 
4, of this Note, that their analogy is evidently apparent. 

Thirdly, When much accumulated electricity is ap- 
proached to one end of a long glass tube by a charged prime 
conductor, there will exist many divisions of the vitreous 
and resinous electricity alternately ; as the vitreous ether 
attracts the resinous ether from a certain distance on the 
surface of the glass tube, and repels the vitreous ether ; but, 
as this surface is a bad conductor, these reciprocal attrac- 
tions and repulsions do not extend very far along it, but 
cease and recur in various parts of it. Exactly similar to 
this, when a magnetic bar is approximated to the end of a 
common bar of iron or steel, as described in Mr. Cavallo's 
valuable Treatise on Magnetism ; the arctic ether of the 
north pole of the magnetic bar attracts the antarctic ether 
of the bar of common iron towards the end in contact, and 
repels the arctic ether ; but, as iron and steel are as bad con- 
ductors of magnetism, as glass is of electricity, this accu- 
mulation of arctic ether extends but a little way, and then 
there exists an accumulation of antarctic ether ; and thus 
reciprocally in three or four divisions of the bar, which now 
becomes magnetised, as the glass tube became electrised. 

Another striking feature, which shows the sisterhood of 
electricity and magnetism, consists in the origin of both of 
them from the earth, or common mass of matter. The 
eduction of electricity from the earth is shown by an insu- 
lated cushion soon ceasing to supply either the vitreous or 
resinous ether to the whirling globe of glass or of sulphur ; 
the eduction of magnetism from the earth appears from the 
following experiment: if a bar of iron be set upright on the 
earth in this part of the world, it becomes in a short time 
magnetical ; the lower end possessing northern polarity, or 
arctic ether, and the higher end in consequence possessing 
southern polarity or antarctic ether ; which may be well 
explained, if we suppose with Mr. Cavalio, that the earth 



82 Additional Notes. 

itself is one great magnet, with its southern polarity or an- 
tarctic ether at the northern end of this axis ; and, in conse- 
quence, that it attracts the arctic ether of the iron bar into 
that end of it which touches the earth, and repels the an- 
tarctic ether of the iron bar to the other end of it, exactly 
the same as when the southern pole of an artificial magnet 
is brought into contact with one end of a sewing needle. 

3. The magnetic and electric ethers agree in the charac- 
ters above mentioned, and perhaps in many others, but dif- 
fer in the following ones. The electric ethers pass readily 
through metallic, aqueous, and carbonic bodies, but do not 
permeate vitreous or resinous ones ; though on the surfaces 
of these they are capable of adhering, and of being accu- 
mulated by the approach or contact of other bodies ; while 
the magnetic ethers will not permeate any bodies, and are 
capable of being accumulated only on iron and steel by 
the approach or contact of natural or artificial magnets, or 
of the earth ; at the same time the attractive and repulsive 
powers both of the magnetic and electric ethers will act 
through all bodies, like those of gravitation and heat. 

Secondly, The two electric ethers rush into combination, 
when they can approach each other, after having been se- 
parated and condensed, and produce a violent explosion 
emitting the heat and light, which were previously com- 
bined with them : whereas the two magnetic ethers slowly 
combine, after having been separated and accumulated on 
the opposite ends of a soft iron bar, and without emitting 
heat and light produce a neutral mixture, which, like the 
electric combination, ceases to be cognizable by our senses 
or experiments. 

Thirdly, The wonderful property of the magnetic ethers, 
when separately accumulated on the ends of a needle, en- 
deavouring to approach the two opposite poles of the earth ; 
nothing similar to which has been observed in the electric 
ethers. 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 83 
From these strict analogies between electricity and mag- 
netism, we may conclude that the latter consists of two 
ethers as well as the former ; and that they both, when se- 
perated by art or nature, combine by chemical affinity 
when they approach, the one exploding, and then consist- 
ing of a residuum after having emitted heat and light ; 
and the other producing simply a neutralized fluid by their 
union. 



XL Conclusion. 

1. When two fluids are diffused together without under- 
going any change of their chemical properties, they are said 
simply to be mixed, and not combined ; as milk and water 
when poured together, or as oxygen and azote in the com- 
mon atmosphere. So when salt or sugar is diffused in wa- 
ter, it is termed solution, and not combination ; as no change 
of their chemical properties succeeds. 

But when an acid is mixed with a pure alcali a combina- 
tion is produced, and the mixture is said to become neutral, 
as it does not possess the chemical properties which either 
of the two ingredients possessed in their separate state, and 
is therefore similar to neither of them. But when a carbo- 
nated alcali, as mild salt of tartar, is mixed with a mineral 
acid, they presently combine as above, but now the carbo- 
nic acid flies forcibly away in the form of gas ; this, there- 
fore, may be termed a kind of explosion, but cannot pro- 
perly be so called, as the etherial fluids of heat and light 
are not principally emitted, but an aerial one or gas; which 
may probably acquire a small quantity of heat from the 
combining matters. 

But when strong acid-of nitre is poured upon charcoal in 
fine powder, or upon oil of cloves, a violent explosion en- 
sues, and the etherial matters of heat and light are emitted 
in great abundance, and are dissipated ; while in the for- 
mer instance the oxygen of the nitrous acid unites with the 



84 Additional Notes. 

carbone forming carbonic acid gas, and the azote escapes 
in its gasseous form ; which may be termed a residuum af- 
ter the explosion, and may be confined in a proper appara- 
tus, whico. the heat and light cannot; for the former, if its 
production be great and sudden, bursts the vessels, or other- 
wise it passes slowly through them ; and the latter passes 
through transparent bodies, and combines with opake ones. 

But where ethers only are concerned in an explosion, as 
the two eiectric ones, which are previously difficult to con- 
fine in vessels : the repulsive ethers of heat and light are 
given out; and what remains is a combination of the two 
electric ethers ; which in this state are attracted by all bo- 
dies, and form atmospheres round them. 

These combined electric atmospheres must possess less 
heat and light after their explosion ; which they seem af- 
terwards to acquire at the time they are again separated 
from each other, probably from the combined heat and com- 
bined light of the cushion and glass, or of the cushion and 
resin ; by the contact of which they are separated ; and not 
from the diffused heat of them ; but no experiments have 
yet been made to ascertain this fact, this combination of 
the vitreous arid resinous ethers may be esteemed the resi- 
duum after their explosion. 

2. Hence the essence of explosion consists in two bodies, 
which are previously united with heat and light, so strongly 
attracting eacli other, as to set at liberty those two repul- 
sive ethers ; but it happens, that these explosive materials 
cannot generally be brought into each other's vicinity in a 
state of sufficient density ; unless they are also previously 
combined with some other material beside the light and heat 
above spoken of: as in the nitrous acid, the oxygen is pre- 
viously combined with azote ; and is thus in a condensed 
state, before it is brought into the contact or vicinity of the 
carbone ; there are however bodies which will slowly ex- 
plode ; or give out heat and light, without being previously 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 85 
combined with other bodies ; as phosphorus in the common 
atmosphere, some dead fish in a certain degree of putridity, 
and some living insects probably by their respiration in 
transparent lungs, which is a kind of combustion. 

But the two electric ethers are condensed by being 
brought into vicinity with each other with a nonconductor 
between them ; and thus explode violently, as soon as they 
communicate, either by rupturing the interposed noncon- 
ductor, or by a metallic communication. This curious me- 
thod of a previous condensation of the two exploding mat- 
ters, without either of them being combined with any other 
material except with the ethers of heat and light, distin- 
guishes this ethereal explosion from that of most other bo~ 
dies ; and seems to have been the cause, which prevented 
the ingenious Dr. Franklin, and others since his time, from 
ascribing the powerful effects of the electric battery, and 
of lightning in bursting trees, inflaming combustible mate- 
rials, and fusing metals, to chemical explosion ; which it re- 
sembles in every other circumstance, but in the manner of 
the previous condensation of the materials, so as violently 
to attract each other, and suddenly set at liberty the heat 
and light, with which one or both of them were combined. 

3. This combination of vitreous and resinous electric 
ethers is again destroyed or weakened by the attractions of 
other bodies ; as they separate intirely, or exist in different 
proportions, forming atmospheres round conducting and 
nonconducting bodies; and in this they resemble other 
combinations of matters ; as oxygen and azote, when unit- 
ed in the production of nitrous acid, are again separated 
by carbone ; which attracts the oxygen more powerfully, 
than that attracts the azote, with which it is combined. 

This mode of again separating the combined electric 
ethers by pressing them, as they surround bodies in different 
proportions, into each other's atmospheres, as by the glass 
and cushion, has not been observed respecting the decom- 



8(5 Additional Notes, 

position of other bodies ; when their minute particles are 
brought so near together as to decompose each other; 
which has thence probably contributed to prevent this de- 
composition of the two combined electric ethers from be- 
ing ascribed to chemical laws ; but, as far as we know, the 
attractive and repulsive atmospheres round the minute par- 
ticles of bodies in chemical operations may act in a similar 
manner ; as the attractive and repulsive atmospheres, which 
accompany the electric ethers surrounding the larger masses 
of matter, and that hence both the electric and the chemi- 
cal explosions are subject to the same laws, and also the de- 
composition again of those particles, which were combined 
in the act of explosion. 

4. It is probable that this theory of electric and magne- 
tic attractions and repulsions, which so visibly exist in at- 
mospheres round larger masses of matter, may be applied 
to explain the invisible attractions and repulsions of the 
minute particles of bodies in chemical combinations and de- 
compositions, and also to give a clear idea of the attrac- 
tions of the great masses of matter, which form the gravita- 
tions of the universe. 

We are so accustomed to see bodies attract each other, 
when they are in absolute contact, as dew drops or par- 
ticles of quick-silver forming themselves into spheres, as wa- 
ter rising in capillary tubes, the solution of salts and sugar 
in water, and the cohesion with which all hard bodies are 
held together, that we are not surprised at the attraction of 
bodies in contact with each other, but ascribe them to a law 
affecting all matter. In similar manner when two bodies in 
apparent contact repel each other, as oil thrown on water ; 
or when heat converts ice into water, and water into steam; 
or when one hard body in motion pushes another hard body 
out of its place ; we feel no surprise, as these events so per- 
petually occur to us, but ascribe them as well as the attrac- 
tions of bodies in contact with each other, to a general law 
of nature. 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 87 

But when distant bodies appear to attract or repel each 
other, as we believe that nothing can act where it does not 
exist, we are struck with astonishment ; which is owing to 
our not seeing the intermediate ethers, the existence of 
which is ascertained by the electric and magnetic facts above 
related. 

From the facts and observations above mentioned, elec- 
tricity and magnetism consist each of them of two ethers, as 
the vitreous and resinous electric ethers, and the arctic and 
antarctic magnetic ethers. But as neither of the electric 
ethers will pass through glass or ream ; and as neither of 
the magnetic ethers will pass through any bodies except 
iron; and yet the attractive and repulsive powers accom- 
panying all these ethers permeate bodies of all kinds ; it 
follows,|that ethers more subtile than either the electric or 
magnetic ones attend those ethers forming atmospheres 
round them ; as those electric and magnetic ethers them- 
selves form atmospheres round other bodies. 

This secondary atmosphere of the electric one appears to 
consist of two ethers, like the electric one w T hich it sur- 
rounds : but these ethers are probably more subtile as they 
permeate all bodies ; and when they unite by the recipro- 
cal approach of the bodies, which they surround, they do 
not appear to emit heat and light, as the primary electric 
atmospheres do ; and therefore they are simpler fluids, as 
they are not previously combined with heat and light. The 
secondary magnetic atmospheres are also probably more 
subtile or simple than the primary ones. 

Hence we may suppose, that not only all the larger insu- 
lated masses of matter, but all the minute particles also, 
which constitute those masses, are surrounded by two ethe- 
real fluids ; which like the electric and magnetic ones at- 
tract each other forcibly, and as forcibly repel those of the 
same denomination ; and at the same time strongly adhere 
to the bodies, which they surround. Secondly, that these 
ethers are of the finer kind, like those secondary ones, which 



88 Additional Notes. 

surround the primary electric and magnetic ethers ; and that 
therefore they do not explode giving out heat and light 
when they unite, but simply combine, and become neutral ; 
and lastly, that they surround different bodies in different 
proportions, as the vitreous and resinous electric ethers were 
shown to surround silver and zinc and many other metals 
in different proportions in No. IX. of this note. 

5. For the greater ease of conversing on this subject, we 
shall call these two ethers, with which all bodies are sur- 
rounded, the masculine and the feminine ethers; and sup- 
pose them to possess the properties above mentioned. We 
should here however previously observe, that in chemical 
processes it is necessary, that the bodies, which are to com- 
bine or unite with each other, should be in a fluid state, 
and the particles in contact with each other; thus when 
salt is dissolving in water, the particles of salt unite with 
those of the water, which touch them ; these particles of 
water become saturated, and thence attract some of the 
saline particles with less force ; which are therefore attracted 
from them by those behind ; and the first particles of water 
are again saturated from the solid salt ; or in some similar 
processes the saturated combinations may subside or evapo- 
rate, as in the union of the two electric ethers, or in the 
explosion of gun-powder, and thus those in their vicinity 
may approach each other. This necessity of a liquid form 
for the purpose of combination, appears in the lighting of 
gun-powder, as well as in all other combustion, the spark 
of fire applied dissolves the sulphur, and liquifies the com- 
bined heat ; and by these means a fluidity succeeds, and 
the consequent attractions and repulsions, which form the 
explosion. 

The whole mixed mass of matter, of which the earth is 
composed, we suppose to be surrounded and penetrated by 
the two ethers, but with a greater proportion of the mascu- 
line ether than of the feminine. When a stone is elevated 
above the surface of the earth, we suppose it also to be sur- 
rounded with an atmosphere of the two ethers, but with a 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. 89 
greater proportion of the feminine than of the masculine, 
and that these ethers adhere strongly by cohesion both to 
the earth and to the stone elevated above it. Now the great- 
er quantity of the masculine ether of the earth becomes in 
contact with the greater quantity of the feminine ether of 
the stone above it ; which it powerfully attracts, and at the 
same time repels the less quantity of the masculine ether of 
the stone. The reciprocal attractions of these two fluids, 
if not restrained by counter attractions, bring them together 
as in chemical combination, and thus they bring together 
the solid bodies, which they reciprocally adhere to ; if they 
be not immovable ; which solid bodies when brought into 
contact, cohere by their own reciprocal attractions, and 
hence the mysterious affair of distant attraction or gravita- 
tion becomes intelligible, and consonant to the chemical 
combinations of fluids. 

To further elucidate these various attractions, if the pa- 
tient reader be not already tired, he will please to attend to 
the following experiment : let a bit of sponge suspended on 
a silk line be moistened with a solution of pure alcali, and 
another similar piece of sponge be moistened with a weak 
acid, and suspended near the former ; electrize one of them 
with vitreous ether, and the other with resinous ether ; as 
they hang with a thin plate of glass between them : now as 
these two electric ethers appear to attract each other with- 
out intermixing ; as neither of them can pass through glass ; 
they must be themselves surrounded with secondary ethers, 
which pass through the glass, and attract each other, as 
they become in contact ; as these secondary ethers adhere 
to the primary vitreous and resinous ethers, these primary 
ones are drawn by them into each other's vicinity by the 
attraction of cohesion, and become condensed on each side 
of the glass plane ; and then when the glass plane is with- 
drawn, the two electric ethers being now in contact rush 
violently together, and draw along with them the pieces oi^ 
moistened sponge, to which they adhere; and finally the 
acid and alcaline liquids being now brought into contact 
combine by their chemical affinity. 



90 Additional Notes, 

The repulsions of distant bodies are also explicable by 
this idea of their being surrounded with two ethers, which 
we have termed masculine and feminine for the ease of con- 
versing about them ; and have compared them to vitreous 
and resinous electricity, and to arctic and antarctic magne- 
tism. As when two particles of matter, or two larger mas- 
ses of it, are surrounded both with their masculine ethers, 
these ethers repel each other or refuse to intermix ; and in 
consequence the bodies to which they adhere, recede from 
each other; as two cork-balls suspended near each other, 
and electrised both with vitreous or both with resinous ether* 
repel each other ; or as the extremities of two needles mag- 
netised both with arctic, or both with antarctic ether, repel 
each other ; or as oil and water surrounded both with their 
masculine, or both with their feminine ethers, repel each 
other without touching; so light is believed to be reflected 
from a mirror without touching its surface, and to be bent 
towards the edge of a knife, or refracted by its approach 
from a rarer medium into a denser one, by the repulsive 
ether of the mirror, and the attractive ones of the knife-edge, 
and of the denser medium. Thus a polished tea-cup slips 
on the polished saucer probably without their actual con- 
tact with each other, till a few drops of water are interpos- 
ed between them by capillary attraction, and prevent its 
sliding by their tenacity. And so, lastly, one hard body 
in motion pushes another hard body out of its place by 
their repulsive ethers without being in contact; as appears 
from their not adhering to each other, which all bodies in 
real contact are believed to do. Whence also may be in- 
ferred the reason why bodies have been supposed to repel 
at one distance and attract at another, because they attract 
when their particles are in contact with each other, and 
either attract or repel when at a distance by the interven- 
tion of their attractive or repulsive ethers. 

Thus have I endeavoured to take one step further back 
into the mystery of the gravitation and repulsion of bodies, 
which appeared to be distant from each other, as of the sun 



Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 91 

and planets as I before endeavoured to take one step further 
back into the mysteries of generation in my account of the 
production of the buds of vegetables in Phytologia. With 
what success these have been attended I now leave to the 
judgment of philosophical readers, from which I can make 
no appeal. 



( 92 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. XIII. 

ANALYSIS OF TASTE. 

Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine. 
And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine. 

Canto III. 1. 221. 

The word Taste in its extensive application may express 
the pleasures received by any of our senses, when excited 
into action by the stimulus of external objects ; as when 
odours stimulate the nostrils, or flavours the palate ; or when 
smoothness, or softness are perceived by the touch, or 
warmth by its adapted organ of sense. The word Taste is 
also used to signify the pleasurable trains of ideas suggested 
by language, as in the compositions of poetry and oratory. 
But the pleasures, consequent to the exertions of our sense 
of vision only, are designed here to be treated of, with oc- 
casional references to those of the ear, when they elucidate 
each other. 

When any of our organs of sense are excited into their 
due quantity of action, a pleasurable sensation succeeds, as 
shown in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. IV. These are simply the 
pleasures attending perception, and not those which are 
termed the pleasures of Taste ; which consist of additional 
pleasures arising from the peculiar forms or colours of ob- 
jects, or of their peculiar combinations or successions, or 
from other agreeable trains of ideas previously associated 
with them. 

There are four sources of pleasure attendant on the exci- 
tation of the nerves of vision by light and colours, besides 



Analysis of Taste. 93 

that simply of perception above mentioned; the first is de- 
rived from a degree of novelty of the forms, colours, num- 
bers, combinations, or successions, and visible objects. The 
second is derived from a degree of repetition of their forms, 
colours, numbers, combinations, or successions. Where 
these two circumstances exist united in certain quantities, 
and compose the principal part of a landscape, it is termed 
picturesque by modern writers. The third source of plea- 
sure from the perception of the visible world may be termed 
the melody of colours, which will be shown to coincide 
with melody of sounds : this circumstance may also accom- 
pany the picturesque, and will add to the pleasure it affords. 
The fourth source of pleasure from the perception of visible 
objects is derived from the previous association of other 
pleasurable trains of ideas with certain forms, colours, com- 
binations, or successions of them. Whence the beautiful, 
sublime, romantic, melancholic, and other emotions, which 
have not acquired names to express them. We may add, 
that all these four sources of pleasure from perceptions are 
equally applicable to those of sounds as of sights. 



I. Novelty or infrequency of visible objects* 

The first circumstance, which suggests an additional plea- 
sure in the contemplation of visible objects, besides that of 
simple perception, arises from their novelty or infrequency ; 
that is from the unusual combinations or successions of their 
forms or colours. From this source is derived the perpetual 
cheerfulness of youth, and the want of it is liable to add a 
gloom to the countenance of age. It is this which produces 
variety in landscape compared with the common course of 
nature, an intricacy which incites investigation, and a curi- 
osity which leads to explore the works of nature. Those 
who travel into foreign regions instigated by curiosity, or 
who examine and unfold the intricacies of sciences at home, 
are led by novelty ; which not only supplies ornament to 
beauty or to grandeur, but adds agreeable surprize to the 



94 Additional Notes. 

poinc of the epigram, and to the double meaning of the 

pun, and is courted alike by poets and philosophers. 

It should be here premised, that the word Novelty, as 
used in these pages, admits of degrees or quantities, some 
objects, or the ideas excited by them, possessing more or 
less novelty, as they are more or less unusual. Which the 
reader will please to attend to, as we have used the word 
Infrequency of objects, or of the ideas excited by them, to 
express the degrees or quantities of their novelty. 

The source, from which is derived the pleasure of no- 
velty, is a metaphysical inquiry of great curiosity, and will 
on that account excuse my here introducing it. In our 
waking hours, whenever an idea occurs, which is incongru- 
ous to our former experience, we instantly dissever the train 
of imagination by the power of volition; and compare the 
incongruous idea with our previous knowledge of nature, 
and reject it. This operation of the mind has not yet ac- 
quired a specific name, though it is exerted every minute 
of our waking hours, unless it may be termed Intuitive 
Analogy. It is an act of reasoning of which we are un- 
conscious except by its effects in preserving the congruity 
of our ideas ; Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVII. 3. 7. 

In our sleep as the power of volition is suspended, and 
consequently that of reason, when any incongruous ideas 
occur in the trains of imagination, which compose our 
dreams ; we cannot compare them with our previous know- 
ledge or nature and reject them; whence arises the perpe- 
tual inconsistency of our sleeping trains of ideas ; and whence 
in our dreams we never feel the sentiment of novelty ; how- 
ever different the ideas, which present themselves, may be 
from the usual course of nature. 

But in our waking hours, whenever any object occurs 
which does not accord with the usual course of nature, we 
immediately and unconsciously exert our voluntary power, 
and examine it by intuitive analogy, comparing it with our 



Analysis of Taste. 95 

previous knowledge of nature. This exertion of our voli- 
tion excites many other ideas, and is attended with pleasur- 
able sensation ; which constitutes the sentiment of novelty. 
But when the object of novelty stimulates us so forcibly as 
suddenly to disunite our passing trains of ideas, as if a pis- 
tol be unexpectedly discharged, the emotion of surprise is 
experienced ; which by exciting violent irritation and vio- 
lent sensation, employs for a time the whole sensorial ener- 
gy, and thus dissevers the passing trains of ideas, before the 
power of volition has time to compare them with the usual 
phenomena of nature; but as the painful emotion of fear is 
then generally added to that of surprise, as every one expe- 
riences, who hears a noise in the dark, which he cannot im- 
mediately account for; this great degree of novelty, when 
it produces much surprise, generally ceases to be pleasure 
able, and does not then belong to objects of taste. 

In its less degree surprise is generally agreeable, as it 
simply expresses the sentiment occasioned by the novelty 
of our ideas ; as in common language we say, we are agree- 
ably surprised at the unexpected meeting with a friend, 
which not only expresses the sentiment of novelty, but also 
the pleasure from other agreeable ideas associated with the 
object of it, 

It must appear from hence, that different persons must 
be affected more or less agreeably by different degrees or 
quantities of novelty in the objects of taste ; according to 
their previous knowledge of nature, or their previous habits 
or opportunities of attending to the fine arts. Thus before 
its nativity the fetus experiences the perceptions of heat 
and cold, of hardness and softness, of motion and rest, with 
those perhaps of hunger and repletion, sleeping and wak- 
ing, pain and pleasure ; and perhaps some other perceptions 
which may at this early time of its existence have occasioned 
perpetual trains of ideas. On its arrival into the world the 
perceptions of light and sound must by their novelty at 
first dissever its usual trains of ideas and occasion great sur 
prise ; which after a few repetitions will cease to be disagree 



96 Additional Notes. 

able, and only excite the emotion from novelty, which has 
not acquired a separate name, hut is in reality a less degree 
of surprise ; and by further experience the sentiment of 
novelty, or any degree of surprise, will cease to be excited 
by the sounds or sights, which at first excited perhaps a 
painful quantity of surprise. 

It should here be observed that as the pleasure of novelty 
is produced by the exertion of our voluntary power in com- 
paring uncommon objects with those which are more usu- 
ally exhibited ; this sentiment of novelty is less perceived 
by those who do not readily use the faculty of volition, or 
who have little previous knowledge of nature, as by very 
ignorant or very stupid people, or by brute animals ; and 
that therefore to be affected with this circumstance of the 
objects of Taste requires some previous knowledge of such 
kinds of objects, and some degree of mental exertion. 

Hence when a greater variety of objects than usual is 
presented to the eye, or when some intricacy of forms, co- 
lours, or reciprocal locality more than usual accompanies 
them, it is termed novelty if it only excites the exertion of 
intuitive comparison with the usual order of nature, and 
affects us with pleasurable sensation; but is termed surprise, 
if it suddenly dissevers our accustomed habits of motion, 
and is then more generally attended with disagreeable sen- 
sation. To this circumstance attending objects of taste is 
to be referred what is termed wild and irregular in land- 
scapes, in contradistinction to the repetition of parts or uni- 
formity spoken of below. We may add, that novelty of 
notes and tones in music, or of their combinations or suc- 
cessions, are equally agreeable to the ear, as the novelty of 
forms and colours, and of their combinations or successions 
are to the eye ; but that the greater quantity or degree of 
novelty, the sentiment of which is generally termed Sur- 
prise, is more frequently excited by unusual or unexpected 
sounds ; which are liable to alarm us with fear, as well as 
surprise us w 7 ith novelty. 



Analysis of Taste. §7 



Repetition of visible objects. 

The repeated excitement of the same or similar idea* 
with certain intervals of time, or distances of space between 
them, is attended with agreeable sensations, besides that 
simply of perception ; and, though it appears to be diamet- 
rically opposite to the pleasure arising from the novelty of 
objects above treated of, enters into the compositions of 
all the agreeable arts. 

The pleasure arising from the repetition of similar ideas 
with certain intervals of time or distances of space between 
them is a subject of great metaphysical curiosity, as well as 
the source of the pleasure derived from novelty, which will 
I hope excuse its introduction in this place. 

The repetitions of motions may be at first produced ei- 
ther by volition, or by sensation, or by irritation, but they 
soon become easier to perform than any other kinds of action, 
because they soon become associated together ; and thus 
their frequency of repetition, if as much sensorial power 
be produced during every reiteration, as is expended, adds 
to the facility of their production. 

If a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, 
the action, whether of our muscles or organs of sense, is 
produced with still greater facility or energy ; because the 
sensorial power of association, mentioned above, is com- 
bined with the sensorial power of irritation ; that is in com- 
mon language, the acquired habit assists the power of the 
stimulus. 

This not only obtains in the annual, lunar, and diurnal 
catenations of animal motions, as explained in Zoonomia, 
Sect. XXXVI. which are thus performed with great facility 
and energy ; but in every less circle of actions or ideas, 
as in the burden of a song, or the reiterations of a dance. 



98 Additional Notes. 

To the facility and distinctness, with which we hear sounds 
at repeated intervals, we owe the pleasure, which we re- 
ceive from musical time, and from poetic time, as described 
in Botanic Garden, V. II. Interlude III. And to this the* 
pleasure we receive from the rhimes and alliterations of 
modern versification ; the source of which without this key- 
Would be difficult to discover. 

There is no variety of notes referable to the gamut in the 
Seating of a drum, yet if it be performed in musical time, 
it is agreeable to our ears ; and therefore this pleasurable 
sensation must be owing to the repetition of the divisions of 
the sounds at certain intervals of time, or musical bars. 
Whether these times or bars are distinguished by a pause, 
or by an emphasis, or accent, certain it is, that this distinc- 
tion is perpetually repeated ; otherwise the ear could not 
determine instantly, whether the successions of sound were 
in common or in triple time. 

But besides these little circles of musical time, there are 
the greater returning periods, and the still more distinct 
chorusses ; which, like the rhimes at the end of verses, owe 
their beauty to repetition ; that is, to the facility and dis- 
tinctness with which we perceive sounds, which we expect 
to perceive or have perceived before ; or in the language of 
this work, to the greater ease and energy with which our 
organ is excited by the combined sensorial powers of asso- 
ciation and irritation, than by the latter singly. 

This kind of pleasure arising from repetition, that is from 
the facility and distinctness with which we perceive and 
understand repeated sensations, enters into all the agreea- 
ble arts ; and when it is carried to excess is termed formali- 
ty. The art of dancing like that of music depends for a 
great part of the pleasure, it affords, on repetition ; architec- 
ture, especially the Grecian, consists of one part being a 
repetition of another, and hence the beauty of the pyrami- 
dal outline in landscape-painting ; Where one side of the 
picture may be said in some measure to balance the other. 



Analysis of Taste, gg 

$o universally does repetition contribute to our pleasure in 
the fine arts, that beauty itself has been defined by some 
writers to consist in a due combination of uniformity and 
variety : Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2. 1. 

Where these repetitions of form, and reiterations of co- 
lour, are produced in a picture or a natural landscape, in 
an agreeable quantity, it is termed simplicity, or unity of 
character ; where the repetition principally is seen in the 
disposition or locality of the divisions, it is called symme- 
try, proportion, or grouping the separate parts ; where mis 
repetition is most conspicuous in the forms of visible ob- 
jects, it is called regularity or uniformity ; and where it 
affects the colouring principally, the artists call it breadth 
of colour. 

There is nevertheless, an excess of the repetition of the 
same or similar ideas, which ceases to please, and must 
therefore be excluded from compositions of Taste in paint- 
ed landscapes, or in ornamented gardens ; which is then 
called formality, monotony, or insipidity. Why the exci- 
tation of ideas should give additional pleasure by the faci- 
lity and distinctness of their production for a certain time, 
and then cease to give additional pleasure ; and gradually 
to give less pleasure than that, which attends simple exer- 
tion of them ; is another curious metaphysical problem, and 
deserves investigation. 

In our waking hours a perpetual voluntary exertion, of 
which we are unconscious, attends all our new trains of 
ideas, whether those of imagination or of perception ; which 
by comparing them with our former experience preserves 
the consistency of the former, by rejecting such as are in- 
congruous; and adds to the credibility of the latter, by 
their analogy to objects of our previous knowledge: and 
this exertion is attended with pleasurable sensation. After 
very, frequent repetition these trains of ideas do not excite 
the exertion of this intuitive analojy, and in consequence 
are not attended with additional pleasure to that simply of 



100 Additional Notes. 

perception ; and by continued repetition they at length 
lose even the pleasure simply of perception, and thence fi- 
nally cease to be excited ; whence one cause of the torpor 
of old age, and of death, as spoken of in Additional Note, 
No. VII. 3. of this work. 

When there exists in any landscape a certain number 
and diversity of forms and colours, or of their combinations 
or successions, so as to produce a degree of novelty ; and 
that with a certain repetition or arrangement of parts, so 
as to render them gradually comprehensible or easily com- 
pared with the usual course of nature ; if this agreeable 
combination of visible objects be on a moderate scale, in res- 
pect to magnitude, and form the principal part of the land- 
scape, it is termed Picturesque by modern artists ; and 
when such a combination of forms and colours contains 
many easy flowing curves and smooth surfaces, the delight- 
ful sentiment of Beauty becomes added to the pleasure of 
the Picturesque. 

If the above agreeable combination of novelty and repe- 
tition exists on a larger scale with more projecting rocks, 
and deeper dells, and perhaps with a somewhat greater pro- 
portion of novelty than repetition, the landscape assumes 
the name of Romantic ; and if some of these forms or com- 
binations are much above the usual magnitude of similar 
objects, the more interesting sentiment of Sublimity be- 
comes mixed with the pleasure of the romantic. 



III. Melody of Colours. 

A third source of pleasure arising from the inspection of 
visible objects, besides that of simple perception, arises 
from what may be termed melody of colours, as certain 
colours are more agreeable, when they succeed each other ; 
or when they are disposed in each other's vicinity, so as 
successively to affect the organ of vision. 



Analysis of Taste, 101 

In a paper on the colours seen in the eye after looking for 
some on luminous objects, published by Dr. Darwin of 
Shrewsbury in the Phiios. Trans. Vol. 76, it is evidently 
shown, that we see certain colours not only with greater 
ease and distinctness, but with relief and pleasure, after 
having for some time inspected other certain colours; as 
green after red, or red after green, orange after blue, or 
blue after orange ; yellow after violet, or violet after yel- 
low ; this, he shows, arises from the ocular spectrum of the 
colour last viewed coinciding with the irritation of the 
colour now under contemplation. 

Thus if you make a dot with ink in the centre of a circle 
of red silk the size of a letter w T afer, and place it on a sheet 
of white paper, and look on it for a minute without moving 
your eyes; and then gently turn them on the white paper 
in its vicinity, or gently close them, and hold one hand an 
inch or two before them, to prevent too much light from 
passing through the eyelids, a circular spot of pale green will 
be seen on the white paper, or in the closed eye ; which is 
called the ocular spectrum of the red silk, and is formed as 
Dr. Darwin shows by the pandiculation of stretching of the 
fine fibrils, which constitute the extremities of the optic 
nerve, in a direction contrary to that, in which they have 
been excited by previously looking at a luminous object, 
till they become fatigued ; like the yawning or stretching 
of the larger muscles after acting long in one direction. 

If at this time the eye, fatigued by looking long at the 
centre of the red silk, be turned on paper previously co- 
loured with pale green ; the circular spot or ocular spectrum 
will appear of a much darker green ; as now the irritation 
from the pale green paper coincides with the pale green 
spectrum remaining in the eye, and thus excites those 
fibres of the retina into stronger action ; on this account 
some colours are seen more distinctly, and consequently 
more agreeably after others ; or when placed in the vicini- 
ty of others; thus if orange-coloured letters are painted on 

o 



102 Additional Notes. 

a blue ground, they may be read at as great distance a& 

black on white, perhaps at a greater. 

The colours, which are thus more distinct when seen in 
succession are called opposite colours by Sir Isaac Newton 
in his optics, Book I. Part 2, and may be easily discovered 
by any one, by the method above described ; that is by lay- 
ing a coloured circle of paper or silk on a sheet of white pa- 
per, and inspecting it some time with steady eyes, and then 
either gently closing them, or removing them on another 
part of the white paper, and the ocular spectrum or oppo- 
site colour becomes visible in the eye. 

Sir Isaac Newton has observed, that the breadths of the 
seven primary colours in the sun's image refracted by a 
prism, are proportioned to the seven musical notes of the 
gamut, or to the intervals of the eight sounds contained in 
an octave. 

From this curious coincidence, it has been proposed to 
produce a luminous music, consisting of successions or com- 
binations of colours, analogous to a tune in respect to the 
proportions above mentioned. This might be performed by 
a strong light, made by means of Mr. Argand's lamps pass- 
ing through coloured glasses, and falling on a defined part 
of the wall, with moveable blinds before them, which might 
communicate with the keys of a harpsichord, and thus pro- 
duce at the same time visible and audible music in unison 
with each other. 

Now as the pleasure we receive from the sensation of me- 
lodious notes, independent of musical time, and of the pre- 
vious associations of agreeable ideas with them, must arise 
from our hearing some proportions of sounds after others 
more easily, distinctly, or agreeably ; and as there is a coin- 
cidence between the proportions of the primary colours, and 
the primary sounds, if they may be so called ; the same 
laws must probably govern the sensations of both. In this 
circumstance therefore consists the sisterhood of Music and 



Analysis of Taste. 103 

Painting ; and hence they claim a right to borrow meta- 
phors from each other ; musicians to speak of the brilliancy 
of sounds, and the light and shade of a concerto ; and pain- 
ters of the harmony of colours, and the tone of a picture. 

This source of pleasure received from the melodious suc- 
cession of colours or of sounds must not be confounded with 
the pleasure received from the repetition of them explained 
above, though the repetition, or division of musical notes 
into bars, so as to produce common or triple time, contri- 
butes much to the pleasure of music ; but in viewing a fix- 
ed landscape nothing like musical time exists ; and the 
pleasure received therefore from certain successions of co- 
lours must depend only on the more easy or distinct action 
of the retina in perceiving some colours after others, or in 
their vicinity, like the facility or even pleasure with which 
we act with contrary muscles in yawning or stretching after 
having been fatigued with a long previous exertion in the 
contrary direction. 

Hence where colours are required to be distinct, those 
which are opposite to each other, should be brought into 
succession or vicinity ; as red and green, orange and blue, 
yellow and violet ; but where colours are required to inter- 
mix imperceptibly, or slide into each other, these should not 
be chosen ; as they might by contrast appear too glaring or 
tawdry. These gradations and contrasts of colours have 
been practically employed both by the painters of landscape, 
and by the planters of ornamental gardens ; though the 
theory of this part of the pleasure derived from visible ob- 
jects was not explained before the publication of the paper 
on ocular spectra above mentioned ; which is reprinted at 
the end of the first part of Zoonomia, and has thrown great 
light on the actions of the nerves of sense in consequence 
of the stimulus of external bodies. 



104 Additional Notes, 

IV. Association of agreeable sentiments with visible objects. 

Besides the pleasure experienced simply by the percep- 
tion of visible objects, it has been already shown, that there 
is an additional pleasure arising from the inspection of those 
which possess novelty, or some degree of it ; a second addi- 
tional pleasure from those, which possess in some degree a 
repetition of their parts, and a third from those, which pos- 
sess a succession of particular colours, which either contrast 
or slide into each other, and which we have termed melody 
of colours. 

We now step forward to the fourth source of the plea- 
sures arising from the contemplation of visible objects besides 
{hat simply of perception, which consists in our previous 
association of some agreeable sentiment with certain forms 
or combinations of them. These four kinds of pleasure singly 
or in combination, constitute what is generally understood 
by the word Taste in respect to the visible world ; and by 
parity of reasoning it is probable, that the pleasurable ideas 
received by the other senses, or which are associated with 
language, may be traced to similar sources. 

It has been shown by Bishop Berkeley in his ingenious 
essay on vision, that the eye only acquaints us with the per- 
ception of light and colours ; and that our idea of the soli- 
dity of the bodies, which reflect them, is learnt by the or- 
gan of touch : he therefore calls our vision the language of 
touch, observing that certain gradations of the shades of 
colour, by our previous experience of having examined si- 
milar bodies by our hands or lips, suggest our ideas of solidi- 
ty, and of the forms of solid bodies ; as when we view a tree, 
it would otherwise appear to us a flat green surface, but by 
association of ideas we know it to be a cylindrical stem with 
round branches. This association of the ideas acquired by 
the sense of touch with those of vision, we do not allude 
to in the following observations, but to the agreeable trains 
or tribes of ideas and sentiments connected with certain 
kinds of visible objects. 



Analysis of Taste. 105 



Sentiment of Beauty. 

Of these catenations of sentiments with visible objects, the 
first is the sentiment of Beauty or Loveliness ; which is sug- 
gested by easy-flowing curvatures of surface, with smooth- 
ness : as is so well illustrated in Mr. Burke's Essay on the 
Sublime and Beautiful, and in Mr. Hogarth's analysis of 
Beauty ; a new edition of which is much, wanted separate 
from his other works. 

The sentiment of Beauty appears to be attached from our 
cradles to the easy curvatures of lines, and smooth surfaces 
of visible objects, and to have been derived from the form 
of the female bosom ; as spoken of in Zoonomia, Vol. I. 
Section XVI. on Instinct. 

Sentimental love, as distinguished from the animal passion 
of that name, with which it is frequently accompanied, con- 
sists in the desire or sensation of beholding, embracing, and 
saluting, a beautiful object. 

The characteristic of beauty therefore is that it is the ob- 
ject of love ; and though many other objects are in common 
language called beautiful, yet they are only called so meta- 
phorically, and ought to be termed agreeable. A Grecian 
temple may give us the pleasurable idea of sublimity ; a 
Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable idea of variety; 
and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility ; music 
and poetry may inspire our love by association of ideas ; but 
none of these, except metaphorically, can be termed beau- 
tiful ; as we have no wish to embrace or salute them. 

Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition by 
the sense of vision of those objects, first which have before 
inspired our love by the pleasure which they have afforded 
to many of our senses: as to our sense of warmth, of touch, 



105 Additional Notes, 

of smell, of taste, hunger and thirst ; and secondly, which 

bear any analogy of form to such objects. 

When the babe, soon after it is born into this cold world, 
is applied to its mother's bosom, its sense of perceiving 
warmth is first agreeably affected ; next its sense of smell is 
delighted with the odour of her milk; then its taste is gra- 
tified by the flavour of it, afterwards the appetites of hunger 
and of thirst afford pleasure by the possession of their ob- 
jects, and by the subsequent digestion of the aliment ; and 
lastly, the sense of touch is delighted by the softness and 
smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of such vari- 
ety of happiness. 



( 107 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. XIV. 

THE THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE. 



Next to each thought associate s6und accords, 
And forms the dulcet symphony of words. 

Canto III. I. 365. 

Ideas consist of synchronous motions or configurations of 
the extremities of the organs of sense ; these when repeated 
by sensation, volition, or association, are either simple or 
complex, as they were first excited by irritation; or have 
afterwards some parts abstracted from them, or some parts 
added to them. Language consists of words, which are 
the names or symbols of ideas. Words are therefore pro- 
perly all of them nouns or names of things. 

Little had been done in the investigation of the theory 
of language from the time of Aristotle to the present aera, 
till Mr. Home Tooke, the ingenious and learned author of 
the Diversions of Purley, explained those undeclined words 
of all languages, which had puzzled the grammarians, and 
evinced from their etymology, that they were abbreviations 
of other modes of expression. Mr. Tooke observes, that 
the fust aim of language was to communicate our thoughts, 
and the second to do it with dispatch ; and hence he divides 
words into those which are necessary to express our thoughts, 
and those which are abbreviations of the former; which he 
ingeniously styles the wings of Hermes. 

For the greater dispatch of conversation many words sug- 
gest more than one idea ; I shall therefore arrange them ac- 
cording to the number and kinds of ideas, which they sug- 



108 Additional Notes. 

gest ; and am induced to do this, as a new distribution of 
the objects of any science may advance the knowledge of 
it by developing another analogy of its constituent parts. 
And in thus endeavouring to analyze the theory of language 
I mean to speak primarily of the English, and occasionally 
to add what may occur concerning the structure of the 
Greek and Latin. 



I. Conjunctions and Prepositions. 

The first class of words consists of those, which suggest 
but one idea, and suffer no change of termination ; which 
have been termed by grammarians Conjunctions and 
Prepositions ; the former of which connect sentences, 
and the latter words. Both which have been ingeniously 
explained by Mr. Home Tooke from their etymology to be 
abbreviations of other modes of expression. 

1. Thus the conjunction if and an, are shown by Mr. 
Tooke to be derived from the imperative mood of the verbs 
to give and to grant ; but both of these conjunctions by long 
use appear to have become the name of a more abstracted 
idea, than the words give or grant suggest, as they do not 
now express any ideas of person, or of number, or of time ; 
all which are generally attendant upon the meaning of a 
verb ; and perhaps all the words of this class are the names 
of ideas much abstracted, which has caused the difficulty of 
explaining them. 

2. The number of prepositions is very great in the En- 
glish language, as they are used before the cases of nouns, 
and the infinitive mood of verbs, instead of the numerous 
changes of termination of the nouns and verbs of the Greek 
and Latin ; which gives greater simplicity to our language, 
and greater facility of acquiring it. 

The prepositions, as well as the preceding conjunctions, 
have been well explained by Mr. Home Tooke ; who has 



The Theory and Structure of Language. 109 

developed the etymology of many of them. As the great- 
est number of the ideas, we receive from external objects, 
are complex ones, the names of these constitute a great 
part of language, as the proper names of persons and pla- 
ces; which are complex terms. Now as these complex 
terms do not always exactly suggest the quantity of com- 
bined ideas we mean to express, some of the prepositions 
are prefixed to them to add or deduct something, or to li- 
mit their general meaning ; as a house with a party wall, 
or a house without a roof. These words are also derived 
by Mr. Tooke, as abbreviations of the imperative moods of 
verbs ; but which appear now to suggest ideas further ab- 
stracted than those generally suggested by verbs, and are 
all of them properly nouns, or names of ideas. 



II. Nouns Substantive. 

The second class of words consists of those, which in 
their simplest state suggest but one idea, as the word man ; 
but which by two changes of termination in our language 
suggest one secondary idea of number, as the word men ; 
or another secondary idea of the genitive case, as man's 
mind, or the mind of man. These words by other changes 
of termination in the Greek and Latin languages suggest 
many other secondary ideas, as of gender, as well as of num- 
ber, and of all the other cases described in their grammars; 
which in English are expressed by prepositions. 

This class of words includes the Nouns Substantive, 
or names of things, of common grammars, and may be con- 
veniently divided into three kinds. 1. Those which suggest 
the ideas of things believed to possess hardness, and figure, 
as a house or a horse. 2. Those which suggest the ideas 
of things, which are not supposed to possess hardness and 
figure, except metaphorically, as virtue, wisdom ; which 
have therefore been termed abstracted ideas. 3. Those 
which have been called by metaphysical writers reflex ideas, 



110 Additional Notes. 

and mean those of the operations of the mind, as sensation, 

volition, association. 

Another convenient division of these nouns substantive 
or names of things may be first into general terms, or the 
names of classes of ideas, as man, quadruped, bird, fish, ani- 
mal 9. Into the names of complex ideas, as. this house, 
that dog. 3. Into the names of simple ideas, as whiteness, 
sweetness. 

A third convenient division of the names of things may 
be into the names of intire things, whether of real or ima- 
ginary being ; these are the nouns substantive of grammars. 
2. Into the names of the qualities or properties of the for- 
mer ; these are the nouns adjective of grammars. 3. The 
names of more abstracted ideas, as the conjunctions and 
prepositions of grammarians. 

These nouns substantive, or names of intire things, sug- 
gest but one idea in their simplest form, as in the nomina- 
tive case singular of grammars. As the word a stag is the 
name of a single complex idea ; but the word stags by a 
change of termination adds to this a secondary idea of. num- 
ber ; and the word stag's, with a comma before the final s, 
suggests, inEnglish, another secondaiy idea of something ap- 
pertaining to the stag, as a stag's horn; which is, however, 
in our language, as frequently expressed by the preposition 
of, as the horn of a stag. 

In the Greek and Latin languages an idea of gender is 
joined with the names of intire things, as well as of num- 
ber ; but in the English language the nouns, which express 
inanimate objects, have no genders except metaphorically ; 
and even the sexes of many animals have names so totally 
different from each other, that they rather give an idea of 
the individual creature than of the sex, as bull and cow, 
horse and mare, boar and sow, dog and bitch. This con- 
stitutes another circumstance, which renders our language 
more simple and more easy to acquire ; and at the same 



The Theory and Structure oj Language. Ill 

time contributes to the poetic excellence of it ; as by adding 
a masculine or feminine pronoun, as be, or she, other nouns 
substantive are so readily personified. 

In the Latin language there are frve cases besides the no- 
minative or original word, and in the Greek four. Whence 
the original noun substantive by change of its termination 
suggests a secondary idea either corresponding with the ge- 
nitive, dative, accusative, vocative, or ablative cases, besides 
the secondary ideas of number and gender above mention- 
ed. The ideas suggested by these changes of termination, 
which are termed cases, are explained in the grammars of 
these languages, and are expressed in ours by prepositions, 
which are called the signs of those cases. 

Thus the word Domini, of the Lord, suggests beside the 
primary idea a secondary one of something appertaining to 
it, as templum Domini, the temple of the Lord, or the 
Lord's temple ; which in English is either effected by an 
addition of the letter s, with a comma before it, or by the 
preposition of. This genitive case is said to be expressed 
in the Hebrew language simply by the locality of the words 
in succession to each other ; which must so far add to the 
conciseness of that language. 

Thus the word Domino, in the dative case, to the Lord, 
suggests besides the primary idea a secondary one of some- 
thing being added to the primary one ; which is effected in 
by English the preposition to. 

The accusative case, or Dominum, besides the primary 
idea implies something having acted upon the object of that 
primary idea ; as felis edit murem, the cat eats the mouse. 
This is thus effected in the Greek and Latin by a change of 
termination of the noun acted upon, but is managed in a 
more concise way in our language by its situation in the sen- 
tence, as it follows the verb. Thus if the mouse in the 
above sentence was placed before the verb, and the cat after 
it, in English the sense would be inverted, but not so ia 



112 Additional Notes. 

Latin ; this necessity of generally placing the accusative case 
after the verb is inconvenient in poetry ; though it adds to 
the conciseness and simplicity of our language, as it saves 
the intervention of a preposition, or of a change of termi- 
nation. 

The vocative case of the Latin language, or Domine, be- 
sides the primary idea suggests a secondary one of appeal, 
or address ; which in our language is either marked by its 
situation in the sentence, or by the preposition O preceding 
it. Whence this interjection O conveys the idea of appeal 
joined to the subsequent noun, and is therefore properly 
another noun, or name of an idea, preceding the principal 
one like other prepositions. 

The ablative case in the Latin language, as Domino, sug- 
gests a secondary idea of something being deducted from 
or by ,the primary one. Which is perhaps more distinctly 
expressed by one— of those prepositions in our language ; 
which, as it suggests somewhat concerning the adjoined 
noun, is properly another noun, or name of an idea, preced- 
ing the principal one. 

When to these variations of the termination of nouns in 
the singular number are added those equally numerous of 
the plural, and the great variety of these terminations cor- 
respondent to the three genders, it is evident, that the pre- 
positions of our own and other modern languages instead of 
the changes of termination add to the simplicity of these 
languages, and to the facility of acquiring them. 

Hence in the Latin language, besides the original or pri- 
mary idea suggested by each noun substantive, or name of 
an entire thing, there attends an additional idea of number, 
another of gender, and another suggested by each change of 
termination, which constitutes the cases; so that in this 
language four ideas are suggested at the same time by one 
word ; as the primary idea, its gender, number, and case ; 
the latter of which has also four or five varieties. These 



The Theory and Structure of Language. 113 

nouns therefore may properly be termed the abbreviation of 
sentences ; as the conjunctions and prepositions are termed 
by Mr. Tooke the abbreviation of words ; and if the latter 
are called the wings affixed to the feet of Hermes, the for- 
mer may be called the wings affixed to his cap. 



III. Adjectives, Articles, Participles, Adverbs. 

1. The third class of words consists of those, which in 
their simplest form suggest two ideas ; one of them is an 
abstracted idea of the quality of an object, but not of the 
object itself; and the other is an abstracted idea of its ap- 
pertaining to some other noun called a substantive, or a 
name of an entire thing. 

These words are termed Adjectives, are undeclined in 
our language in respect to cases, number, or gender ; but by 
three changes of termination they suggest the secondary 
ideas of greater, greatest, and of less ; as the word sweet 
changes into sweeter, sweetest, and sweetish ; which may 
be termed three degrees of comparison besides the positive 
meaning of the word ; which terminations of er and est are 
seldom added tow T ordsof more than two syllables ; as those 
degrees are then most frequently denoted by the preposi- 
tions more and most. 

Adjectives seem originally to have been derived from 
nouns substantive, of which they express a quality, as a 
musky rose, a beautiful lady, a stormy day. Some of them 
are formed from the correspondent substantive by adding 
the syllable ly, or like, as a lovely child, a warlike counte- 
nance ; and in our language it is frequently only necessary 
to put a hyphen between two nouns substantive for the pur- 
pose of converting the former one into an adjective, as an 
eagle-eye, a May-day. And many of our adjectives are 
substantives unchanged, and only known by their situation 
in a sentence, as a German, or a German gentleman. Ad- 



114 Additional Notes. 

jectives therefore are names of qualities, or parts of things; 
as substantives are the names of entire things. 

In the Latin and Greek languages these adjectives pos- 
sess a great variety of terminations ; which suggest occasi- 
onally the ideas of number, gender, and the various cases, 
agreeing in ail these with the substantive, to which they be- 
long ; besides the two original or primary ideas of quality, 
and of their appertaining to some other word, which must 
be adjoined to make them sense. Insomuch that some of 
these adjectives, when declined through all their cases, and 
genders, and numbers in their positive, comparative, and 
superlative degrees, enumerate fifty or sixty terminations. 
All which to one, who wishes to learn these languages, 
are so many new words, and add much to the difficulty of 
acquiring them. 

Though the English adjectives are undeclined, having 
neither case, gender, nor number ; and with this simplicity 
of form possess a degree of comparison by the additional 
termination of ish, more than the generality of Latin or 
Greek adjectives, yet are they less adapted to poetic mea- 
sure, as they must accompany their corresponding substan- 
tives ; from which they are perpetually separated in Greek 
and Latin poetry. 

2. There is a second kind of adjectives, which abound in 
our language, and in the Greek, but not in the Latin, which 
are called Articles by the writers of grammar, as the let- 
ter a, and the word the. These like the adjectives above 
described, suggest two primary ideas, and suffer no change 
of termination in our language, and therefore suggest no 
secondary ideas. 

Mr. Locke observes, that languages consist principally of 
general terms; as it would have been impossible to give a 
name to every individual object, so as to communicate an 
idea of it to others ; it would be like reciting the name of 
every individual soldier of an army, instead of using the ge- 



The Theory and Structure of Language, 115 

neral term, army. Now the use of the article a, and the 
in English, and o in Greek, converts general terms into par- 
ticular ones ; this idea of particularity as a quality, or pro- 
perty of a noun, is one of the primary ideas suggestsd by 
these articles ; and the other is, that of its appertaining to 
some particular noun substantive, without which it is not 
intelligible. In both these respects these articles correspond 
with adjectives ; to which may be added, that our article a 
may be expressed by the adjective one or any ; and that 
the Greek article o is declined like other adjectives. 

The perpetual use of the article, besides its converting 
general terms into particular ones, contributes much to the 
force and beauty of our language from another circumstance, 
that abstracted ideas become so readily personified simply 
by the omission of it ; which perhaps renders the English 
language better adapted to poetry than any other ancient 
or modern : the following prosopopoeia from Shakespeare is 
thus beautiful. 

She let Concealment like a worm i' th* bud 
Feed on her damask cheek. 

And the following line, translated from Juvenal by Dr. 
Johnson, is much superior to the original, owing to the ea- 
sy personification of Worth and Poverty, and to the conse- 
quent conciseness of it. 

Difficile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat 

Res angusta domi. 

Slow rises Worth by Poverty depressed, 

3. A third class of adjectives includes what are termed 
Participles, which are allied to the infinitive moods of 
verbs, and are formed in our language by the addition only 
of the syllable ing or ed; and are of two kinds, active 
and passive, as loving, loved, from the verb to love. The 
verbs suggest an idea of the noun, or thing spoken of; and 
also of its manner of existence, whether at rest, inaction, or 



HO Additional Notes. 

in being acted upon ; as I lie still, or I whip, or I am whip- 
ped ; and, lastly, another idea of the time of resting, acting, 
or suffering ; but these adjectives called participles, suggest 
only two primary ideas, one of the noun, or thing spoken of, 
and another of the mode of existence, but not a third idea 
of time ; and in this respect participles differ from the verbs, 
from which they originate, or which originated from them, 
except in their infinitive moods. 

Nor do they resemble adjectives only in their suggesting 
but two primary ideas; but in the Latin and Greek lan- 
o-uaees they are declined through all the cases, genders, and 
numbers, like other adjectives; and change their terminati- 
ons in the degrees of comparison. 

In our language the participle passive, joined to the verb 
to be for the purpose of adding to it the idea of time, forms 
the whole of the passive voice ; and is frequently used in a 
similar manner in the Latin language, as I am loved ,s ex- 
pressed either by amor, or amatus sum. The constructs 
of the whole passive voice from the verb to be and the par- 
iicioles passive of other verbs, contributes mnch to the sim- 
plicity of our language, and the ease of acquiring if; but 
renders it less concise than perhaps it might have been by 
some simple variations of termination, as in the active voice 
of it. 

4 A fourth kind of adjective is called by the grammari- 
ans'an Adverb; which has generally been formed from 
the first kind of adjectives, as these were frequently formed 
from correspondent substantives; or it has been formed from 
he thW kind of adjectives, called participles -and this 
reflected in both cases by the addition of the syllable ly, 
as wisely, charmingly. 

This kind of adjective suggests two primary ideas like the 
adjectives, and participles, from which they are derived ; 
but differ from them in this curious circumstance that me 
other adjectives relate to substantives, and are declined like 



The Theory and Structure of Language. 117 

them in the Latin and Greek languages, as a lovely boy, a 
war-like countenance ; but these relate to verbs, and are 
therefore undeclined, as to act boldly, to suffer patiently. 



IV. Verbs. 

The fourth class of words consists of those which are 
termed Verbs, and which in their simplest state suggest 
three ideas ; first an idea of the noun, or name of the thing 
spoken of, as a whip. 2. An idea of its mode of existence, 
whether at rest, or in action, or in being acted upon. 3. 
An idea of the time of its existence. Thus " the beadle 
whipped the beggar," in prolix language might be expressed, 
the beadle with a whip struck in time past the beggar. — 
Which three ideas are suggested by the one word whipped. 

Verbs are therefore nouns, or names of intire ideas, with 
the additional ideas of their mode of existence and of time- 
but the participles suggest only the noun, and the mode of 
existence, without any idea of time ; as whipping, or whip- 
ped. The infinitive moods of verbs correspond in their sig- 
nification with the participles; as they also suggest only the 
noun, or the name of the thing spoken of, and an idea of its 
mode of existence, excluding the idea of time ; which is 
expressed by all the other moods and tenses; whence it ap- 
pears, that the infinitive mood, as well as the participle, is 
not truly a part of the verb ; but as the participle resembles 
the adjective in its construction ; so the infinitive mood may 
be said to resemble the substantive, and it is often used as 
a nominative case to another verb. 

Thus in the words, " a charming lady with a smiling 
countenance,' ' the participle acts as an adjective ; and in 
the words, " to talk well commands attention," the infini- 
tive mood acts as the nominative case of a noun substan- 
tive; and their respective significations are also very similar, 

Q 



US Additional Notes. 

as whipping, or to whip, mean the existence of a person act- 
ing with a whip. 

In the Latin language the verb in its simplest form, ex- 
cept the infinitive mood; and the participle, both which we 
mean to exclude from complete verbs, suggests four prima- 
ry ideas, as amo, suggests the pronoun I, the noun love, its 
existence in its active state, and the present time ; which 
verbs in the Greek and Latin undergo an uncounted vari- 
ation of termination, suggesting so many different ideas in 
addition to the four primary ones. 

We do not mean to assert, that all verbs are literally de- 
rived from nouns in any language ; because all languages 
have in process of time undergone such great variation ; 
many nouns having become obsolete or have perished, and 
new verbs have been imported from foreign languages, or 
transplanted from ancient ones ; but that this has originally 
been the construction of all verbs, as well as those to whip 
and to love above mentioned, and innumerable others. 

Thus there may appear some difficulty in analyzing from 
what noun substantive were formed the verbs to stand or to 
lie ; because Ave have not properly the name of the abstract 
ideas from which these verbs arose, except we use the same 
word for the participle and the noun substantive, as stand- 
ing, lying. But the verbs to sit, and to walk, are less diffi- 
cult to trace to their origin ; as we have names for the nouns 
substantive, a seat, and a walk. 

But there is another verb of great consequence in all lan- 
guages, which would appear in its simplest form in our lan- 
guage to suggest but two primary ideas, as the verb to be, 
but that it suggests three primary ideas like other verbs may 
be understood, if we use the synonimous term to exist in- 
stead of to be. Thus (t I exist" suggests first the abstract idea 
of existence, not including the mode of existence whether 
at rest, or in action, or in suffering ; secondly it adds to that 
abstracted idea of existence its real state, or actual resting, 



The Theory and Structure of Language. 119 

acting, or suffering, existence; and thirdly the idea of the 
present time : thus the infinitive mood to be, and the parti- 
ciple, being, suggest both the abstract idea of existence, 
and the actual state of it, but not the time. 

The verb to be is also used irregularly to designate the 
parts of time and actual existence ; and is then applied to 
either the active or passive participles of other verbs, and 
called an auxiliary verb; while the mode of existence, 
whether at rest, or in action, or being acted upon, is ex- 
pressed by the participle, as " I am loving" is nearly the 
same as " I love," amo ; and " I am loved," amatus sum, 
is nearly the same as amor. This mode of application of the 
verb to be is used in French as well as in English, and in the 
passive voice of the Latin, and perhaps in many other lan- 
guages ; and is by its perpetual use in conversation render- 
ed irregular in them all, as I am, thou art, he is, would 
not seem to belong to the infinitive mood to be, any more 
than sum, fui, sunt, fuerunt, appear to belong to esse. 

The verb to have affords another instance of irregular ap- 
plication ; the word means in its regular sense to possess, 
and then suggests three ideas like the above verb of exist- 
ence : first the abstracted idea of the thing spoken of, or 
possession; secondly, the actual existence of possession, 
and lastly the time, as I have or possess. This verb to have 
like the verb to be is also used irregularly to denote parts of 
past time, and is then joined to the passive participles alone, 
as I have eaten ; or it is accompanied with the passive par- 
ticiple of the verb to be, and then with the active participle 
of another verb, as I have been eating. 

There is another word will used in the same irregular 
manner to denote the parts of future time, which is derived 
from the verb to will ; which in its regular use signifies to 
exert our volition. There are other words used to express 
other circumstances attending upon verbs, as may, can, 
shall, all which are probably the remains of verbs otherwise 
obsolete. Lastly, when we recollect that in the moods and 



120 Additional Notes. 

tenses of verbs one word expresses never less than three 
ideas in our language, and many more in the Greek and 
Latin ; as besides those three primary ideas the idea of per- 
son, and of number, are always expressed in the indicative 
mood, and other ideas suggested in the other moods, we 
cannot but admire what excellent abbreviations of language 
are thus achieved ; and when we observe the wonderful in- 
tricacy and multiplicity of sounds in those languages, espe- 
cially in the Greek verbs, which change both the beginning 
and ending of the original word through three voices, and 
three numbers, with uncounted variations of dialect ; we 
cannot but admire the simplicity of modern languages 
compared to these ancient ones ; and must finally perceive, 
that all language consists simply of nouns, or names of' 
ideas, disposed in succession or in combination, all of which 
are expressed by separate words, or by various terminations 
of the same word. 



Cojiclusion. 

The theory of the progressive production of language in 
the early times of society, and its gradual improvements in 
the more civilized ones, may be readily induced from the 
preceding pages. In the commencement of Society the 
names of the ideas of entire things, which it was necessary 
most frequently to communicate, would first be invented, 
as the names of individual persons, or places, fire, water, 
this berry, that root ; as it was necessary perpetually to an- 
nounce, whether one or many of such external things ex- 
isted, it was soon found more convenient to add this idea of 
number by a change of termination of the word, than by 
the addition of another word. 

As many of these nouns soon became general terms, as 
bird, beast, fish, animal; it was next convenient to distin- 
guish them when used for an individual, from the same 



The Theory and Structure of Language. 121 

word used as a general term ; whence the two articles a and 
the, in our language, derive their origin. 

Next to these names of the ideas of entire things, the 
words most perpetually wanted in conversation would pro- 
bably consist of the names of the ideas of the parts or pro- 
perties of things ; which might be derived from the names 
of some things, and applied to others, which in these re- 
spects resembled them ; these are termed adjectives, as rosy 
cheek, mai\ly voice, beastly action : and seem at first to 
have been fonned simply by a change of termination of their 
correspondent substantives. The comparative degrees of 
greater and less w?re found so frequently necessary to be 
suggested, that a change of termination even in our lan- 
guage for this purpose was produced ; and is as frequently 
used as an additional word, as wiser or more wise. 

The expression of general similitude, as well as partial 
similitude, becomes so frequently used in conversation, that 
another kind of adjective, called an adverb, was expressed 
by a change of termination, or addition of the syllable ly or 
like ; and as adjectives of the former kind are applied to 
substantives, and express a partial similitude, these are ap- 
plied to verbs and express a general similitude, as to act 
heroically, to speak boldly, to think freely. 

The perpetual chain of causes and effects, which con- 
stitute the motions, or changing configurations, of the uni- 
verse, are so conveniently divided into active and passive, for 
expressing the exertions or purposes of common life, that 
it became particularly convenient in all languages to 
substitute changes of termination, instead of additional 
nouns, to express, whether the thing spoken of was in a state 
of acting or of being acted upon. This change of termiv 
nation betokening action or suffering constitutes the par- 
ticiple, as loving, loved ; which, as it expresses a property 
of bodies, is classed amongst adjectives in the preceding 



122 Additional Notes. 

Besides the perpetual allusions to the active or passive 
state of things, the comparative times of these motions, or 
changes, were also perpetually required to be expressed ; it 
was therefore found convenient in all languages to suggest 
them by changes of terminations in preference to doing it 
by additional nouns. At the same time the actual or real 
existence of the thing spoken of was perpetually required, 
as well as the times of their existence, and the active or 
passive state of that existence. And as no conversation 
could be carried on without unceasingly alluding to these 
circumstances, they became in all languages suggested by 
changes of termination ; which are termed moods and ten- 
ses in grammars, and convert the participle above mention- 
ed into a verb ; as that participle had originally been form- 
ed by adding a termination to a noun, as chaining, and 
chained, from chain. 

The great variety of changes of termination in all lan- 
guages consists therefore of abbreviations used instead of 
additional words ; and adds much to the consciseness of lan^ 
guage, and the quickness with which we are enabled to 
communicate our ideas ; and may be said to add unnumber- 
ed wings to every limb of the God of Eloquence. 



( 123 ) 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. XV. 

ANALYSIS OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 



The tongue, the lips articulate ; the throat 
With soft vibration modulates the note. 

Canto III. 1. 367* 

Having explained in the preceding account of the theo- 
ry of language that it consists solely of nouns, or the names 
of ideas, disposed in succession or combination ; I shall now 
attempt to investigate the number of the articulate sounds, 
which constitute those names of ideas by their successions 
and combinations ; and to show by what parts of the organs 
of speech they are modulated and articulated ; whence may 
be deduced the precise number of letters or symbols neces- 
sary to suggest those sounds, and form an alphabet, which 
may spell with accuracy the words of all languages. 



I. Imperfections of the present Alphabet. 

It is much to be lamented, that the alphabet, which has 
produced and preserved almost all the improvements in 
other arts and sciences, should have itself received no im- 
provement in modern times ; which have added so much 
elucidation to almost every branch of knowledge, that can 
meliorate the condition of humanity. Thus in our present 
alphabets many letters are redundant, others are wanted ; 
some simple articulate sounds have two letters to suggest 
them ; and in other instances two articulate sounds are sug- 
gested by one letter. Some of these imperfections in the 
alphabet of our own language shall be here enumerated. 



124 Additional Notes. 

X. Thus the letter x is compounded of ks, or of gz, as in 
the words excellent, example : eksellent, egzample. 

C. is sometimes k, at other times s, as in the word access. 

G. is a single letter in go ; and suggests the letters d and the 
French J in pigeon. 

Qu is kw, as quality is kwality. 

NG in the words long and in king is a simple sound like the 
French n, and wants a new character. 

SH is a simple sound, and wants a new character. 

TH is either sibilant as in thigh ; or semivocal as in thee ; 
both of which are simple sounds, and want two new 
characters. 

J French exists in our words confuszon, and conclusion, 
judge, pigeon, and wants a character. 

J consonant, in our language, expresses the letters d, and 
the French j conjoined, as in John, Djon. 

CH is either k as in Arch-angel, or is used for a sound com- 
pounded of Tsh, as in Children, Tshildren. 

GL is dl, as Glove is pronounced by polite people dlove. 

CL is tl, as Cloe is pronounced by polite speakers Tloe. 



The spelling of our language in respect to the pronunci- 
ation is also wonderfully defective, though perhaps less so 
than that of the French ; as the words slaughter and laugh- 
ter are pronounced totally different, though spelt alike. The 
word sough, now pronounced suff, was formerly called sow; 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 125 

whence the iron fused and received into a sough acquired 
the name of sow-metal ; and that received into less soughs 
from the former one obtained the name of pigs of iron or of 
lead ; from the pun on the word sough, into sow and pigs. 
Our word jealousies contains all the vowels, though three 
of them only were necessary ; nevertheless in the two words 
abstemiously and facetiously the vowels exist all of them in 
their usual order, and are pronounced in their most usual 
manner. 

Some of the vowels of our language are diphthongs, and 
consist of two vocal sounds, or vowels, pronounced in quick 
succession ; these diphthongs are discovered by prolonging 
the sound, and observing, if the ending of it be different 
from the beginning; thus the vowel i in our language, as 
in the word high, if drawn out ends in the sound of the let- 
ter e as used in English ; which is expressed by the letter i 
in most other languages : and the sound of this vowel i be- 
gins with ah, and consists therefore of ah and ee. Whilst 
the diphthong ou in our language, as in the word how, be- 
gins with ah also and ends in oo, and the vowel u of our 
language, as in the word use, is likewise a diphthong ; which 
begins with e and ends with oo, as eoo. The French u is 
also a diphthong compounded of a and oo, as aoo. And 
many other defects and redundancies in our alphabet will 
be seen by perusing the subsequent structure of a more per- 
fect one. 



II. Production of Sounds. 

By our organ of hearing we perceive the vibrations of the 
air; which vibrations are performed in more or in less time, 
which constitutes high or low notes in respect to the gam- 
mut; but the tone depends on the kind of instrument which 
produces them. In speaking of articulate sounds, they may 
be conveniently divided first into clear continued sounds, 
expressed by the letters called vowels ; secondly, Into hiss- 
it 



126 Additional Notes. 

ing sounds expressed by the letters called sibilants; thirdly, 
Into semivocal sounds, which consist of a mixture of the 
two former; and, lastly, Into interrupted sounds, repre- 
sented by the letters properly termed consonants* 

The clear continued sounds are produced by the streamsr 
of air passing from the lungs in respiration through the la- 
rynx ; which is furnished with many small muscles, which 
by their action give a proper tension to the extremity of this 
tube; and the sounds, I suppose, are produced by the open- 
ing and closing of its aperture ; something like the trumpet 
stop of an organ, as may be observed by blowing through 
the wind-pipe of a dead goose. 

These sounds would all be nearly similar except in their 
being an octave or two higher or lower ; but they are mo- 
dulated again, or acquire various tones, in their passage 
through the mouth ; which thus converts them into eight 
vowels, as will be explained below. 

The hissing sounds are produced by air forcibly pushed 
through certain passages of the mouth* without being pre- 
viously rendered sonorous by the larynx ; and obtain their 
sibilancy from their slower vibrations, occasioned by the 
mucous membrane, which lines those appertures or pas- 
sages, being less tense than that of the larynx. I suppose 
the stream of air is in both cases frequently interrupted by 
the closing of the sides or mouth of the passages or aper- 
ture; but that this is performed much slower in the pro- 
duction of sibilant sounds, than in the production of clear 
ones. 

The semivocal sounds are produced by the stream of air 
having received quick vibrations, or clear sound, in passing 
through the larynx, or in the cavity of the mouth ; but a 
part of it, as the outsides of this sonorous current of air, 
afterwards receives slower vibrations, or hissing sound, from 
some other passages of the lips or mouth, through which it 
then flows. Lastly, the stops, or consonants, impede the 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 127 

current of air, whether sonorous or sibilant, for a percepti- 
ble time ; and probably produce some change of tone in the 
act of opening and closing their apertures. 

There are other clear sounds besides those formed by the 
larynx ; some of them are formed in the mouth, as may be 
heard previous to the enunciation of the letters b, and d, 
and ga ; or during the pronunciation of the semivocal let- 
ters, v. z. j. and others in sounding the liquid letters r and 
1; these sounds we shall term orisonance. The other clear 
sounds are formed in the nostrils, as in pronouncing the li- 
quid letters m. n. and ng. these we shall term narisonance. 

Thus the clear sounds, except those above mentioned, 
are formed in the larynx along with the musical height or 
lowness of note ; but receive afterward a variation of tone 
from the various passages of the mouth : add to these that 
as the sibilant sounds consists of vibrations slower than those 
formed by the larynx, so a whistling through the lips con- 
sists of vibrations quicker than those formed by the larynx. 

As all sound consists in the vibrations of the air, it may 
not be disagreeable to the reader to attend to the immediate 
causes of those vibrations. When any sudden impulse is 
given to an elastic fluid like the air, it acquires a progressive 
motion of the whole, and a condensation of the constituent 
particles, which first receive the impulse; on this account 
the currents of the atmosphere in stormy seasons are never 
regular, but blow and cease to blow by intervals ; as a part 
of the moving stream is condensed by the projectile force; 
and the succeeding part, being consequently rarefied, re- 
quires some time to recover its density, and to follow the 
former part : this elasticity of the air is likewise the cause 
of innumerable eddies in it ; which are much more frequent 
than in streams of water ; as when it is impelled against any 
oblique plane, it results with its elastic force added to its 
progressive one. 



128 Additional Notes. 

Hence when a vacuum is formed in the atmosphere, the 
sides of the cavity forcibly rush together both by the gene- 
ral pressure of the superincumbent air, and by the expan- 
sion of the elastic particles of it ; and thus produce a vibra- 
tion of the atmosphere to a considerable distance : this occurs, 
whether this vacuity of air be occasioned by the discharge 
of cannon, in which the air is displaced by the sudden evo- 
lution of heat, which as suddenly vanishes; or whether the 
vacuity be left by a vibrating string, as it returns from each 
side of the arc, in which it vibrates ; or whether it be left 
under the lid of the valve in the trumpet stop of an organ, 
or of a child's play trumpet, which continues perpetually to 
open and close, when air is blown through it ; which is caus- 
ed by the elasticity of the currents, as it occasions the paus- 
ing gusts of wind mentioned above. 

Hence when a quick current of air is suddenly broken by 
any intervening body, a vacuum is produced by the momen- 
tum of the proceeding current, between it and the interven- 
ing body ; as beneath the valve of the trumpet-stop above 
mentioned ; and a vibration is in consequence produced ; 
which with the great facility, which elastic fluids possess of 
forming eddies, may explain the production of sounds by 
blowing through a fissure upon a sharp edge in a common 
organ-pipe or child's whistle ; which has always appeared dif- 
ficult to resolve ; for the less vibration an organ-pipe itself 
possesses, the more agreeable, I am informed, is the tone ; as 
the tone is produced by the vibration of the air in the organ- 
pipe, and not by that of the sides of it ; though the latter, 
when it exists, may alter the tone though not the note, like 
the belly of a harpsichord, or violin. 

When a stream of air is blown on the edge of the aper- 
ture of an organ-pipe about two thirds of it are believed to 
pass on the outside of this edge y and one third to pass on the 
inside of it; but this current of air on the inside forms an 
eddy, whether the bottom of the pipe be closed or not; 
which eddy returns upwards, and strikes by quick intervals 
against the original stream of air, as it falls on the edge of 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 129 

the aperture, and forces outwards this current of air with 
quick repetitions, so as to make more than two thirds of it, 
and less than two thirds alternately pass on the outside ; 
whence a part of this stream of air, on each side of the edge 
of the aperture is perpetually stopped by that edge ; and 
thus a vacuum and vibration in consequence, are reciprocal- 
ly produced on each side of the edge of the aperture. 

The quickness or slowness of these vibrations constitute 
the higher and lower notes of music, but they all of them 
are propagated to distant places in the same time ; as the 
low notes of a distant ring of bells are heard in equal times 
with the higher ones: hence in speaking at a distance from 
the auditors, the clear sounds produced in the larynx by the 
quick vibrations of its aperture, w T hich form the vowels ; the 
tremulous sounds of the L. R. M. N. NG. which are ow- 
ing to vibrations of certain apertures of the mouth and nose, 
and are so slow, that the intervals between them are perceiv- 
ed ; the sibilant sounds, which I suppose are occasioned by 
the air not rushing into a complete vacuum, whence the vi- 
brations produced are defective in velocity ; and lastly the 
very high notes made by the quickest vibrations of the lips 
in whistling; are all heard in due succession without confu- 
sion ; as the progressive motions of all sounds I believe tra- 
vel with equal velocity, notwithstanding the greater or less 
quickness of their vibrations. 

III. Structure of the Alphabet. 

Mute and antesonant Consonants, and nasal Liquids. 

P. If the lips be pressed close together and some air be 
condensed in the mouth behind them, on opening the 
lips the mute consonant P begins a syllable ; if the lips 
be closed suddenly during the passage of a current of 
air through them, the air becomes condensed in the 
mouth behind them, and the mute consonant P termi- 
nates a syllable. 



1 SO Additional Notes. 

B. If in the above situation of the lips a sound is previ- 
ously pioduced in the mouth, which may be termed 
orisonance, the semisonant consonant B is produced, 
which like the letter P above described may begin or 
terminate a syllable, 

M. In the above situation of the lips, if a sound is produc- 
ed through the nostrils, which sound is termed nari- 
sonance, the nasal letter M is formed ; the sound of 
which may be lengthened in pronunciation like those 
of the vowels. 

T. If the point of the tongue be applied to the forepart of 
the palate, at the roots of the upper teeth, and some 
air condensed in the mouth behind, on withdrawing the 
tongue downwards the mute consonant T is formed ; 
which may begin or terminate a syllable. 

D. If the tongue be placed as above described, and a sound 
be previously produced in the mouth, the semisonant 
consonant D is formed, which may begin or terminate 
a syllable. 

N. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a 
sound be produced through the nostrils, the nasal letter 
N is formed, the sound of which may be elongated 
like those of the vowels. 

K. If the point of the tongue be retracted, and applied to 
the middle part of the palate ; and some air condensed 
in the mouth behind ; on withdrawing the tongue down- 
wards the mute consonant K is produced, which may 
begin or terminate a syllable. 

Ga. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a 
sound be previously produced in the mouth behind, the 
semisonant consonant G is formed, as pronounced in 
the word go, and may begin or terminate a syllable. 




Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 131 

NG. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a 
sound be produced through the nostrils ; the nasal let- 
ter n g is produced, as in king and throng ; which is the 
French n, the sound of which may be elongated like a 
vowel ; and should have an appropriated character, as 
thus <p. 

Three of these letters, P, T, K, are stops to the stream 
of Vocal air, and are called mutes by grammarians ; three, 
B, D, Ga, are preceded by a little orisonance ; and three M, 
N, NG, possess continued narisonance and have been called 
liquids by grammarians. 

W. Of the Germans ; if the lips be appressed together, as 
in forming the letter P ; and air from the mouth be for- 
ced between them ; the W sibilent is produced, as pro- 
nounced by the Germans, and by some of the inferiour 
people of London, and ought to have an appropriated 
character as thus /v\. 

W. If in the above situation of the lips a sound be produc- 
ed in the mouth, as in the letter B, and the sonorous 
air be forced between ; the sonisibilant letter W is pro- 
duced ; which is the common W of our language. 

F. If the lower lip be appressed to the edges of the upper 
teeth, and air from the mouth be forced between them, 
the sibilant letter F is formed. 

V. If in the above situation of the lip and teeth a sound 
be produced in the mouth, and the sonorous air be for- 
ced between them, the sonisibilant letter V is formed. 

Th. Sibilant. If the point of the tongue be placed between 
the teeth, and air from the mouth be forced between 
them, the Th sibilant is produced, as in thigh, and 
should have a proper character, as 0. 



132 Additional Notes. 

Th. Sonisibilant. If in the above situation of the tongue 
and teeth a sound be produced in the mouth, and the 
sonorous air be forced between them, the sonisibilant 
Th is formed, as in Thee ; and should have an appro-" 
priated character as ©. 

S. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart 
of the palate, as in forming the letter T, and air from 
the mouth be forced between them, the sibilant letter 
S is produced. 



Z. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a 
sound be produced in the mouth, as in the letter D, and 
the sonorous air be forced between them, the sonisibi- 
lant letter Z is formed. 

S H. If the point of the tongue be retracted and applied to 
the middle part of the palate, as in forming the letter 
K, and air from the mouth be forced between them, 
the letter Sh is produced, which is a simple sound and 
ought to have a single character, thus \ . 

J. French. If in the above situation of the tongue and pa- 
late a sound be produced in the mouth, as in the letter 
Ga ; and the sonorous air be forced between them ; the 
J consonant of the French is formed ; which is a soni- 
sibilant letter, as in the word conclusion, confusion, 
pigeon ; it should be called Je, and should have a dif- 
ferent character from the vowel i, with which it has an 
analogy, as thus V. 

H. If the back part of the tongue be appressed to the pen- 
dulous curtain of the palate and uvula ; and air from 
behind be forced between them ; the sibilant letter H 
is produced. 

Ch Spanish. If in the above situation of the tongue and 
palate a sound be produced behind ; and the sonorous 
air be forced between them; the Ch'Spanish is formed ; 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds, 133 

which is a sonisibilant letter, the same as the Ch Scotch 
in the words Buchanan and loch : it is also perhaps the 
Welsh guttural expressed by their double L as in 
Lloyd, Lluellen ; it is a simple sound, and ought to 
have a single character as x« 

The sibilant and sonisibilant letters may be elongated in 
pronunciation like the vowels ; the sibilancy is probably oc- 
casioned by the vibrations of the air being slower than those 
of the lowest musical notes. I have preferred the word so- 
nisibilants to the word semivocal sibilants ; as the sounds 
of these sonisibiiants are formed in different apertures of the 
mouth, and not in the larynx like the vowels. 



Orisonant Liquids. 

■j 

R. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart 
of the palate, as in forming the letters T, D, N, S, Z, 
and air be pushed between them so as to produce 
continued sound, the letter R is formed. 

L. If the retracted tongue be appressed to the middle of 
the palate, as in forming the letters- K, Ga, NG, Sh, J 
French, and air be pushed over its edges so as to pro- 
duce continued sound, the letter L is formed. 

The nasal letters m, n, and ng, are clear tremulous sounds 
like R and L, and have all of them been called liquids by 
grammarians. Besides the R and L, above described, there 
is another orisonant sound produced by the lips in whistling ; 
which is not used in this country as a part of language, and 
has therefore obtained no character, but is analogous to the 
R and L ; it is also possible, that another orisonant letter 
may be formed by the back part of the tongue and back 
part of the palate, as in pronouncing H and Ch, which may 
perhaps be the Welch LI in Lloyd, Lluellm. 



134 Additional Notes, 



Four pairs of Vowels. 

A pronounced like au, as in the word call. If the aper- 
ture, made by approximating the back part of the tongue 
to the uvula and pendulous curtain of the palate, as in form- 
ing the sibilant letter H, and the sonisibilant letter Ch Spa- 
nish, be enlarged just so much as to prevent sibilancy ; and 
a continued sound produced by the larynx be modulated in 
passing through it ; the letter A is formed, as in ball, wall, 
which is sounded like aw in the word awkward ; and is the 
most, usual sound of the letter A in foreign languages ; and 
to distinguish it from the succeeding A might be called A 
micron ; as the aperture of the fauces, where it is produced, 
is less than in the next A. 

A pronounced like ah, as, in the word hazard. If the 
aperture of the fauces above described, between the back 
part of the tongue and the back part of the palate, be en- 
larged as much as convenient, and a continued sound, pro- 
duced in the larynx, be modulated in passing through it; 
the letter A is formed, as in animal, army, and ought to 
have an appropriated character in our language, as thus y. 
As this letter A is formed by a larger aperture than the for- 
mer one, it may be called A mega. 

A pronounced as in the words cake, ale. If the retracted 
tongue by approximation to the middle part of the palate, 
as in forming the letters R, Ga, NG, Sh, J French, L, leaves 
an aperture just so large as to prevent sibilancy, and sono- 
rous air from the larynx be modulated in passing through it ; 
the letter A is produced, as pronounced in the words whale, 
sale, and ought to have an appropriated character in our 
language, as thus Q- ; this is expressed by the letter E in 
some modern languages, and might be termed E micron ; as 
is formed by a less aperture of the mouth than the succeed- 
ing E, 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 135 

E pronounced like che vowel a, when short, as in the 
words emblem, dwelling. If the aperture above described 
between the retracted tongue and the middle of the palate 
be enlarged as much as convenient, and sonorous air from 
the larynx be modulated in passing through it, the letter E 
is formed, as in the words egg, herring ; and as it is pronounc- 
ed in most foreign languages, and might be called E mega 
to distinguish it from the preceding E. 

I pronounced like e in keel. If the point of the tongue 
by approximation to the forepart of the palate, as in form- 
ing the letters T, D, N, S, Z, R, leaves an aperture just 
so large as to prevent sibilancy, and sonorous air from the 
larynx be modulated in passing through it; the vowel I is 
produced, which is in our language generally represented by 
e when long, as in the word keel ; and by i when short, as 
in the word it, which is the sound of this letter in most 
foreign languages ; and may be called E micron to distinguish 
it from the succeeding E or Y. 

Y, when it begins a word, as in youth. If the aperture 
above described between the point of the tongue, and the 
forepart of the palate be enlarged as much as convenient, 
and sonorous air from the larynx be modulated in passing 
through it, the letter Y is formed ; which, when it begins 
a word, has been called Y consonant by some, and by others 
has been thought only a quick pronunciation of our e, or 
the i of foreign languages ; as in the word year, yellow ; and 
may be termed E mega, as it is formed by a larger aperture 
than the preceding e or i. 

O pronounced like oo, as in the word fool. If the lips 
by approximation to each other, as in forming the letters 
P, B, M, W sibilant, W sonisibilant, leave an aperture 
just so wide as to prevent sibilancy ; and sonorous air from 
the larynx be modulated in passing through it ; the letter 
O is formed, as in the words cool, school, and ought to have 
an appropriated character as thus oo, and may be termed 
o micron to distinguish it from the succeednig o. 



136 Additional Notes. 

O pronounced as in the word cold. If the aperture above 
described between the approximated lips be enlarged as 
much as convenient and sonorous air from the larynx be 
modulated in passing throught it, the letter o is formed, as 
in sole, coal, which may be termed o mega, as it is formed 
in a larger aperture than the preceding one. 

Conclusion. 

The alphabet appears from this analysis of it to consist of 
thirty-one letter, which spell all European languages. 

Three mute consonants, P, T, K. 

Three antesonant consonants, B, D, Ga. 

Three narisonant liquids, M, N, NG. 

Six sibilants, W German, F, Th, S, Sh, H. 

Six sonisibilants, W, V, Th, Z, J French, Ch Spanish. 

Two orisonant liquids, R. L. 

Eight vowels, Aw, ah, a, e, i, y, oo, o. 

To these thirty-one characters might perhaps be added 
one for the Welsh L, and another for whistling with the 
lips ; and it is possible, that some savage nations, whose lan- 
guages are said to abound with gutturals, may pronounce 
a mute consonant, as well as an antesonant one, and per- 
haps another narisonant letter, by appressing the back part 
of the tongue to the back part of the palate, as in pronounc- 
ing the H, and Ch Spanish. 

The philosophical reader will perceive that these thirty- 
one sounds might be expressed by fewer characters referring 
to the manner of their production. As suppose one charac- 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 137 

ter was to express the antesonance of B, D, Ga ; another 
the orisonance of R, L ; another the sibilance of W, S, Sh, 
H; another the sonisibilance of W, Z, J French, Ch Spa- 
nish ; another to express the more open vowels ; another the 
less open vowels ; for which the word micron is here used* 
and for which the word mega is here used. 

Then the following characters only might be necessary 
to express them all ; P alone, or with antesonance B ; with 
narisonance M ; with sibilance W German ; with sonisibi- 
lance W ; with vocality, termed micron OO ; with vocality, 
termed mega O. 

T alone, or with the above characters added to it, would 
in the same manner suggest D, N, S, Z, EE, Y, and R with 
a mark for orisonance. 

K alone, or with the additional characters, would suggest 
Ga, NG, Sh, J French, A, E, and L, with a mark for ori- 
sonance. 

F alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, V. 

Th alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, Th. 

H alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, Ch Spanish, 
and with a mark for less open vocality, aw, with another 
for more open vocality ah. 

Whence it appears that six single characters, for the let- 
ters P, T, K, F, Th, H, with seven additional marks join- 
ed to them for antesonance, narisonance, orisonance, sibi- 
lance, sonisibilance, less open vocality, and more open vo- 
cality ; being in all but thirteen characters, may spell all 
the European languages. 

I have found more difficulty in analyzing the vowels than 
the other letters; as the apertures through which they are 
modulated, do not close; and it was therefore less easy to 



138 Additional Notes* 

ascertain exactly, in what part of the mouth they Were 
modulated ; but recollecting that those parts of the mouth 
must be more ready to use for the purpose of forming the 
vowels, which were in the habit of being exerted in form- 
ing the other letters ; I rolled up some tin foil into cylin- 
ders about the size of my finger; and speaking the vowels 
separately through them, found by the impressions made on 
them, in w T hat part of the mouth each of the vowels was 
formed with somewhat greater accuracy, but not so as 
perfectly to satisfy myself. 

The parts of the mouth appeared to me to be those in 
which the letters P, I, K, and H, are produced ; as those, 
w r here the letters F and Th are formed, do not suit the 
production of mute or antesonant consonants ; as the inter- 
stices of the teeth would occasion some sibilance ; and these 
apertures are not adapted to the formation of vowels on the 
same account. 

The two first vowels aw and ah being modulated in the 
back part of the mouth, it is necessary to open wide the 
lips and other passages of the mouth in pronouncing them ; 
that those passages may not again alter their tone ; and that 
more so in pronouncing ah, than aw ; as the aperture of the 
fauces is opened wider, where it is formed, and from the 
greater or less size of these apertures used in forming the 
vowels by different persons, the tone of all of them may be 
somewhat altered as spoken by different orators. 

I have treated with greater confidence on the formation 
of articulate sounds, as I many years ago gave considerable 
attention to this subject for the purpose of improving short- 
hand ; at that time I contrived a wooden mouth with lips 
of soft leather, and with a valve over the back part of it for 
nostrils, both w T hich could be quickly opened or closed by 
the pressure of the fingers, the vocality was given by a silk 
ribbon about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide 
stretched between two bits of smooth wood a little hollow- 
ed ; so that when a gentle current of air from bellows was 



Analysis of Articulate Sounds. 139 

blown on the edge of the ribbon, it gave an agreeable tone, 
as it vibrated between the wooden sides, much like a hu- 
man voice. This head pronounced the p, b, m, and the 
vowel a, with so great nicety as to deceive all who heard it 
Unseen, when it pronounced the words mamma, papa, map,, 
and pam ; and had a most plaintive tone, when the lips 
were gradually closed. My other occupations prevented 
me from proceeding in the further construction of this ma- 
chine ; which might have required but thirteen movements, 
as shown in the above analysis, unless some variety of mu- 
sical note was to be added to the vocality produced in the 
larynx; all of which movements might communicate with, 
the keys of a harpsichord or forte piano, and perform the 
song as well as the accompaniment; or which if built in a 
gigantic form, might speak so loud as to command an army 
or instruct a crowd. 

I conclude this with an agreeable hope, that now war is 
ceased, the active and ingenuous of all nations will attend 
again to those sciences, which better the condition of hu- 
man nature ; and that the alphabet will undergo a perfect 
reformation, which may indeed make it more difficult to 
trace the etymologies of words, but will much facilitate the 
acquisition of modern languages; which as science improves 
and becomes more generally diffused, will gradually be- 
come more distinct and accurate than the ancient ones ; as 
metaphors will cease to be necessary in conversation, and 
only be used as the ornaments of poetry. 



THE E,ND 



CONTENTS 



OF 



THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



NOTE I. SPONTANEOUS VITALITY OF MICRO- 
SCOPIC ANIMALS. 

I. Spontaneous vital production not contrary to scripture ; to 
be looked for only in the simplest organic beings ; supposed want 
of analogy no argument against it, as this equally applies to all new 
discoveries. II. The power of reproduction distinguishes organic 
beings ; which are gradually enlarged and improved by it. III. 
Microscopic animals produced from all vegetable and animal infusi- 
ons ; generate others like themselves by solitary reproduction ; not 
produced from eggs ; conferva fontinalis ; mucor. III. Theory of 
spontaneous vitality. Animal nutrition ; vegetable ; some organic 
particles have appetencies to unite, others propensities to be united ; 
buds of trees ; sexual reproduction ; analogy between generation and 
nutrition ; laws of elasticity not understood ; dead animalcules recover 
life by heat and moisture ; chaos redivivum ; vorticella ; shell-snails ; 
eggs and seeds ; hydra. Classes of microscopic animals ; general 
remarks. 

NOTE II. FACULTIES OF THE SENSORIUM. 

Fibres possess a power of contraction ; spirit of animation im- 
mediate cause of their contracting ; stimulus of external bodies the 
remote cause ; stimulus produces irritation ; due contraction occa- 
sions pleasure ; too much, or too little, pain ; sensation produces 
desire or aversion, which constitute volition ; associated motions ; 
irritation; sensation; volition; association; sensorium. 



i 4 2 CONTENTS OF THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

NOTE III. VOLCANOES. 

Their explosions occasioned by water falling on boiling lava ; 
primeval earthquakes of great extent ; more elastic vapours might 
raise islands and continents, or even throw the moon from the earth ; 
stones falling from the sky ; earthquake at Lisbon ; subterraneous 
fires under this island. 



NOTE IV. MUSQUITO. 

The larva lives chiefly *in water ; it may be driven away by 
smoke ; gnats ; libellula ; ssstros bovis ; botts ; musca chamaeleon ; 
vomitoria. 



NOTE V. AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. 

Diodon has both lungs and gills ; some amphibious quadrupeds 
have the foramen ovale open ; perhaps it may be kept open in dogs 
by frequent immersion so as to render them amphibious ; pearl di- 
vers ; distinctions of amphibious animals; lamprey; leech, remo- 
ra ; whale. 



NOTE VI. HIEROGLYPHIC CHARACTERS. 

Used by the magi of Egypt to record discoveries in science, and 
historical events ; astrology an early superstition ; universal charac- 
ters desirable ; Grey's Memoria Technica ; Bergeret's Botanical 
Nomenclature ; Bishop Wilkins' Real Character and Philosophical 



NOTE VII. OLD AGE AND DEATH. 

I. Immediate cause of the infirmities of age not yet well ascer- 
tained ; must be sought in the laws of animal excitability ; debility 
induced by inactivity of many parts of the system ; organs of sense 
become less excitable ; this ascribed to habit ; may arise from defi- 
cient secretion of sensorial power ; all parts of the system not chang- 
ed as we advance in life. II. Means of preventing old age ; warm 



CONTENTS OF THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. 143 

bath ; fishes ; cold-blooded amphibious animals ; fermented liquors 
injurious ; also want of heat, food, and fresh air ; variation of sti- 
muli ; volition; activity. III. Theory of the approach of age ; 
surprise ; novelty ; why contagious diseases affect a person but 
once ; debility ; death. 

NOTE VIII. REPRODUCTION. \$\ 

I. Distinguishes animation from mechanism ; solitary and sexual ; 
buds and bulbs ; aphises ; tenia ; vol vox ; polypus; oyster; eel; 
hermaphrodites. II. Sexual. III. Inferior vegetables and animals 
propagate by solitary generation only ; next order by both ; supe- 
rior by sexual generation alone. IV. Animals are improved by re-, 
production ; contagious diseases ; reproduction a mystery. 

NOTE IX. STORGE. 

Pelicans ; pigeons ; instincts of animals acquired by a previous 
state, and transmitted by tradition ; parental love originates from 
pleasure. 

NOTE X. EVE FROM ADAM'S RIB. 

Mosaic history of Paradise supposed by some to be an allegory ; 
Egyptian philosophers, and others, supposed mankind to have been 
originally of both sexes united. 



NOTE XI. HEREDITARY DISEASES. 

Most affect the offspring of solitary reproduction ; grafted trees, 
strawberries, potatoes ; changing seed ; intermarriages ; hereditary 
diseases owing to indulgence in fermented liqours ; immoderate 
use of common salt ; improvement of progeny ; hazardous to mar- 
ry an heiress. 

NOTE XII. CHEMICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY 
AND MAGNETISM. 

I. Attraction and repulsion. II. Two kinds of electric ether : 
atmospheres of electricity surround all separate bodies ; atr ospheres 



U4 CONTENTS OF THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

of similar kinds repel, of different kinds attract each other strong* 
ly ; explode on uniting ; nonconductors ; imperfect conductors ; 
perfect conductors; torpedo, gymnotus, galvanism. III. Effect 
of metallic points. IV. Accumulation of electric ethers by contact. 
V. By vicinity ; Volta's electrophorus and Bennets doubler. VI. 
By heat and by decomposition ; the tourmalin ; cats ; galvanic pile ; 
evaporation of water. VII. The spark from the conductor ; elec- 
tric l^ht ; not accounted for by Franklin's theory. VIII. Shock 
from a coated jar ; perhaps an unrestrainable ethereal fluid yet un- 
observed ; electric condensation. IX. Galvanic electricity. X. 
Two magnetic ethers ; analogy between magnetism and electricity ; 
differences between them. XI. Conclusion. 

NOTE XIII. ANALYSIS OF TASTE. 

Taste may signify the pleasures received by any of the senses, but 
not those which simply attend perception ; four sourcs of pleasure 
in vision. I. Novelty or infrequency of visible objects ; surprise. 
II. Repetition ; beating of a drum ; dancing ; architecture ; land- 
scapes : picturesque ; beautiful ; romantic ; sublime. III. Melody 
of colours. IV. Association of agreeable sentiments with visible 
objects ; vision the language of touch ; sentiment of beauty. 

NOTE XIV. THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF 
LANGUAGE. 

Ideas ; words the names or symbols of ideas, I. Conjunctions 
and prepositions ; abbreviations of other words. II. Nouns sub- 
stantive. III. Adjectives, articles, participles, adverbs. IV. Verbs ; 
progressive production of language, 

NOTE XV. ANALYSIS OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 

* 
I. Imperfections of the present alphabet ; of our orthography. 
II. Production of sounds. III. Structure of the alphabet ; mute 
and antesonant consonants, and nasal liquids ; sibilants and sonisi- 
bilants ; orisonant liquids ; four pairs of vowels ; alphabet consist* 
qS thirty-one letters; speaking figure. H M O rfr^ 










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